King, The World's Strongest Gamer
by Transcended Potato
Summary: King bought that new VRMMORPG everyone was waiting for! He played the game, and it didn't disappoint! Eh? Why's the HP, MP and ST bar all in real life? Why can he take out items from the game? Why can he cast spells? Most importantly... when did he get so strong?
1. Chapter 1: The World's Strongest Gamer

**Chapter 1: The World's Strongest Gamer**

* * *

It was a simple Tuesday morning. The morning dew had yet to disappear and there was already a crowd of people on a street. Seemingly anticipating something. But of course they were. After all, today was...

The release of the new VR-helmet.

Reputed to be the up-and-coming total revolution of gaming technology, it was able to bring the user into a virtual-reality of unimaginable realism. Old ones were basically goggles with controllers, but these used brain-wave technology, and was able to, quote, "Assimilate the player into a world that would be no different from reality. No controllers, no pesky wires, nothing. The only controller you'll ever need are your own thoughts." As said by the developer of the helmet.

"It would truly be a world where the only limits, are your limitless imaginations." Promised the CEO of the company of the VR-helmet. And that wasn't all.

The best part was, it was practically a small world in a helmet, so any game, any possible game, could be played with the helmet. The programming was _that_ good.

Obviously, that attracted people. A lot of people. Probably every gamer in existence was tempted. Any game? At any time? Condensed into one small helmet? If that wasn't tempting, you were either a monk at a temple, or you're lying.

The name of the helmet was Orbis.

Within the crowd that anxiously waited for the release of the new Orbis-helmet, there was a certain figure. He wore a blue hood and a cap underneath, just enough to cover his eyes, and not the rest of his face. It was covered enough to be inconspicuous and exposed enough to not be viewed as suspicious. He melded in with the crowd so perfectly you wouldn't even give him a second glance.

But underneath the hooded figure was a silent rumble, and if one looked close enough, you could see his body was quaking, bit by bit. It was as if there was something beneath his figure. And if one truly knew his identity...

One would know, it was the rumble of battle intent.

He was Rank 7, S-Class hero, 'The World's Strongest Man', King.

But one would be surprised to know that the strongest hero in existence, was actually blending inconspicuously within the crowd. What was he doing here? Was there a monster? A criminal?

Well, only he knew that... he was really excited for the helmet, too.

" _Any game? No matter what? The imagination is the limit...? That would mean... Doki Doki Sisters in VR, I anxiously await it."_ King thought, as he cracked a small smile.

" _Well, there's that, and also the new online VRMMORPG that's limited to the helmet alone... wonder what's the deal with that."_ King wondered.

Alongside the release of the Orbis helmet, the company had also developed a complimentary online VRMMORPG that would only ever be limited to the products of the Orbis line, meaning that only the Orbis helmet, or any other piece of technology created by the company would have the rights to access their game. Not to mention, it was also the very first VRMMORPG in existence, too.

" _I'd think it's a bit of a stunt, but whatever. I mean, I just want the helmet, really. But saying that I'm not interested by the first VRMMORPG in existence would be a big fat lie."_ King mentally said to himself.

Almost a bit more, and the stores would open, selling the very first units of the Orbis VR-helmet. Needless to say, it was a tense 23 minutes.

Then, the silence broke. The doors of the retail store opened with a welcoming 'ding'.

All hell broke loose as the doors of the massive gaming retail stores were opened, as people rushed in, scrambling to get the new Orbis helmets. Despite that, it was a relatively silent chaos, as the greatest chaos was really just a massive influx of people. Being decent people, everyone rushed in, but without pushing, screaming, yelling, snatching, and all the other unpleasantness that would happen.

Though it seemed that the store already anticipated this;

Rows, and rows, and rows, and even MORE rows of Orbis helmets were all up on the shelves nearest to the store entrance, so it seems like everyone would get what they wanted. At least, it seemed so.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

 _"Phew... I finally bought it. Man, the queues were long. And I'm lucky, too. This is the very last unit in the store."_ King thought, as he walked out of the gaming retail store.

As he sighed in relief and anticipation, King went back home immediately.

 **[1 hour later...]**

King opened the door to his apartment, and set the groceries that he bought while he was coming back home onto the floor, before closing the door behind him. Looking to the tabletop to put his new Orbis helmet on to unpack, he quickly noticed that it was cluttered. King then looked around his room to find some space to put the helmet down... and found none. His apartment was a complete mess.

" _Sigh..._ I guess it's been some time since I cleaned up, huh..." King sighed, looking at the mess around him. As a '29-year old antisocial otaku-loser', by his own words, King never bothered to clean up. But when the mess gets too cluttered, like now-

 ***CLANG***

King looked to the left to see that his singular, one and only, multi-use aluminium tea-pan fell over due to being stacked on an unstable pile of instant-ramen.

"Alright, Universe. I get it. I clean up the flat a bit." King raised both hands as he sighed in defeat. His apartment was a literal mess, and there was pretty much nowhere else to put his... anything. The only room in his apartment which was perfectly clean was his bedroom.

Hey, he was a '29-year old antisocial otaku-loser', but even he had standards. He kept his bedroom as tidy as possible. He was an otaku, yes. But being an otaku didn't mean he was to sleep on a bed filled with empty noodle cups and cans of soda. No more. He learnt his lesson when he woke up with the worst back pain in his entire 24 years of living. It was 5 years since then, but he was sure as hell not going through that again.

 **[1 hour and 10 minutes later...]**

King looked upon what he had accomplished, and it was very good. And he checked his watch- 70 minutes.

Thus the apartment was clean and good and arranged in their vast array.

By the 70th minute King had finished the work he was doing, so on the 70th minute he rested from all his work. Then King praised the 70th minute, because on it he rested from cleaning his apartment.

"Alright, no need to make such a big fuss." King said to himself, as cleaning an apartment wasn't really anything much, in hindsight. Well, compared to what his fellow 'Heroes' do, anyway. They literally beat up monsters before breakfast.

"Still, for me, that was eight bitches and three-quarters." King said, rubbing his sore back. He wasn't as physically fit as the other S-Class heroes, after all. Hell, he was probably even weaker than your average joe.

"Alright, finally, now that the place is cleaned up, I can finally try out the new VR helmet! The... Orbis, I think it was called?" King said, before taking the box and opening it to reveal a futuristic-looking VR-helmet. The specs looked sleek, and it was pure white in its entirety.

After reading the instructions, King then opened up a small compartment and pulled out a small pyramid-looking thing which was also pure white in color, with the exception of a glowing-blue node on the top. King then placed it directly above his WiFi router, and following the instructions, clicked the small glowing node on the pyramid. What it was supposed to do was connect to the nearest WiFi source and use it to wirelessly connect the helmet to the internet. Another thing was; it didn't even need a password!

King couldn't wait any longer, and went to his bedroom. It was suggested that one played the game while lying down, as to prevent anything undesirable from happening. Of course, one could also be sitting down, but it was recommended that the user was lying down, as it would be the safest position.

Lying down on his bed, King put the helmet on, and just as he did, a screen appeared in front of him, with multiple selection boxes. There were some selection boxes, with only a few filled, the rest being empty. The selections included 'Room', 'Sandbox', and 'Arena'. But on the top, was a selection which was highlighted in gold, and the words, 'Orbis Online' were on it.

"Orbis online... I guess the founder of the company wanted to only use one name..." King said to himself, as he noted that the name of the helmet, the included VRMMORPG, and even the name of the company was the same. The Orbis VR helmet, 'Orbis Online', and 'Orbis Inc.' They really only kept a single name for all their products.

After spending 15 minutes on adjusting the 'Audio', 'Visuals', and 'Sensation' settings, King started up 'Orbis Online'.

Then, the screen switched to a countdown timer which counted down from 5. King got comfortable, as as soon as the countdown reached zero, he suddenly felt as if he was pulled somewhere quickly, and it felt similar to suddenly falling down.

...

...

...

 **[Welcome to Orbis online! Please customize your avatar!]**

King saw those words greet him when he realized what just happened.

"Fuck, well that's new." King said to himself, looking around. He saw that he was in an endless white expanse, with only the words in front of him. As soon as he thought about his avatar, though, a person appeared in front of him. Naturally, it was a carbon-copy of King's body.

"Man, I look horrible." King smiled wryly, as only he knew... his body was pretty out-of-shape. He wasn't obese or anything, but his weakness came from somewhere. His apparent muscle atrophy. He practically did nothing other than waste away his time playing games all day for the past 4~5 years, and when he was given his title of 'S-Class hero by the Heroes Association, it degraded even further, with him not needing a part-time job to support himself and whatnot. S-Class hero pay was amazing. Even doing _nothing_ as an S-Class hero was more profitable than the pay of an Executive of a company.

Checking his character body, King saw that he could manipulate it to his own wishes. Simply because, when he thought about 'man, I need to beef up a bit', King's avatar had changed to one with a rather okay build, with visible muscles, but nothing too much.

"I guess they weren't joking around when they said 'the only controller you'll ever need are your thoughts'." King said to himself.

 **[1 minute later...]**

"Alright, that looks good." King said, as he looked at his avatar.

Well built, but not to the point muscles were bulging out, and... that was it. King wasn't picky, all he wanted was that his body didn't look like... well... him.

"I think I'll need to try and get this build in real life. Man I embarrass myself sometimes..." King sighed to himself, as he remembered how he looked in real life. Which his avatar swiftly transformed into.

Switching it back to his previously modified version, King named his character, which he simply named King.

Putting his actual name would be too embarrassing, therefore he chose his Hero Name. Well, some players might recognize him, but characters could be edited, so most players would probably assume that King just edited his face to look like himself, and not believe that he was the one playing the game.

...Hopefully.

After naming his character, King was greeted with a different menu.

"Choose your beginner's set..." King said, reading out the words in front of him, and as soon as he finished, a box appeared in front of him, containing some weapons and armor.

"Note; only 100 points worth of weapons and armor are allowed to be taken." King said, reading aloud the little note on the side.

Looking into the box, there were different kinds of weapons, with little numbers glowing on top of them.

Grabbing a dagger, King saw that the number on the box changed from 100 to 90.

"So the value of the dagger is 10 points..." King said, swinging the dagger around. It was realistic, so to speak. Why? The dagger was actually a bit heavier compared to a military combat knife. How did King know? Well, he once won a black combat knife in a gaming tournament when he was younger, and he never really used it, it mostly served as a cool thing to look at, for King.

That or, used to cut things open when he received massive packages. The stuff his fans sent him...

"So let's see... I can take out some armor and a weapon worth up to 100 points. Remaining unspent points are converted into in-game money. Cool." King said, taking out gear for experimenting. He soon realized that his body was currently the same as his avatar, rather well-built, but not to the point muscles were bulging out, like Tank Top Master, or Superalloy Darkshine.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"So the sword is 20 points, and this spear is 50 points... sheesh, talk about expensive." King said, commenting on how the spear was worth a lot of points. Suddenly, a glint caught his eye.

"Hmm?" King then sifted through the weapons, and fished out a weight, with a chain attached to it.

"No way. There's no way-" King said, before pulling out the rest of the weapon to reveal a chain that was stuck to the end of a sickle.

"Fuck, the physics engine has gotta be top-shit level. I mean, chain and sickle? Seriously?" King said, looking at the weapon. It had a rating of 35 points, so it was rather expensive, being more costly than a standard sword.

King, obviously impressed by the capabilities of the servers to handle such unreal-level of physics, looked through the remaining weapons to see if there was anything that interested him.

If not, he'd either pick a bow or just be a mage. If he was looking for high damage output, mage was the way. If he wanted to make sure he was never going to be touched by a mob, then he'd pick the bow. Despite his looks, he knew a bit of archery. Having a rich uncle with a hobby in archery apparently helped King out today. Well, if he wanted to choose the bow, anyway.

Sifting through the remainder of the weapons to find anything interesting, King found a weird spherical object. It looked like it was coated in copper, What attracted King's attention, however, was that it had a '100' on it! Meaning, King could either get a full set of armor and a good weapon... or he could get this thing.

Taking it out, King wanted to see what was so special about it.

"Huh, what makes this weapon so special? Or is it even a weapon?" King wondered aloud. "If that's all the weapons have to offer, I'd rather take a bow, to be honest."

And as soon as he said it, a blue glow was emitted from the sphere, and then the glow took the shape of a bow.

"Wait, what?"

King tried to pull back the bowstring, and when he did, another glow appeared as an arrow appeared on the bowstring.

"Wait wait wait wait." King said, trying to understand the thing. King then thought about a sword, and the bow swiftly changed into a sword. And King could apparently hold the glowing part.

"Alright, one final test." King said, grasping the sphere in his hands.

The sphere then turned into a shield.

"Okay. I think I got it. It turns into whatever I'm thinking of." King said, holding the sphere.

"I think I know why it's worth 100 points, now."

Even so...

IT WAS TOO OP! Any weapon? Any armor? Probably anything? King didn't think it was worth 100 points. It was basically every other weapon and armor in the box combined together!

"There has to be a limit somewhere... right?" King wondered.

"But still, only an idiot would choose something he wouldn't understand instead of something that really works, right?" King said to himself.

 **[Beginner's set has been chosen! Welcome to Orbis Online!]**

King was that idiot.

"I mean, every single weapon and armor for 100 points? That's something I need to have. Also, it can probably only be one at a time, so it should be fine." King said to himself.

Despite that, it was still a pretty stupid idea. King realized he was beside a really large fountain, which was probably the spawn-point. The fountain was huge, massive, even, because it was at least 30 meters in diameter.

Looking around, he was probably the only player currently who wasn't wearing any armor. Even mages at least had a chain-mail underneath their robes. Only those researcher-mages didn't wear any protection other than their robes, combat mages always had a layer of protection beneath their robes. Other players had plate armor, shields, swords, etc. King was the only one who didn't have any armor or weapons.

Everyone else had weapons and armor. King had a copper sphere and a grey tunic and white pants, and a small leather pouch hanging on a brown leather belt. That was literally all he had.

As he got off from the spawn area, looking around in the city, King saw some people, but some had tags above them which displayed their name, and some which didn't have anything above their heads. Obviously, the one with their names hovering above them were other players, whereas the ones with them were NPCs. At least, King thought so.

And, it took realism to its extreme. There was no mini-map, no HUD, no nothing. There was only he, his HP, MP and ST bar, and his little copper sphere. Well, he still had a pocket inventory, though. After all, no one wanted to be limited to a small bag to carry everything. That, would be too much realism to the point it would be burdensome. People played games to relax, not to do chores. Unless one was grinding.

At the start of the game, everyone had inventories. If one wanted to store something in there, one simply needed to think about storing it in the inventory, and it would be stored. But, as usual, there was a limited space in there. Only 10 different items could be stored in the inventory, and a limit of 100 per stack of item which could be placed in the inventory.

But the higher-leveled one was, the more inventory-spaces one would unlock. Level 1 only had 10 spaces, level 10 had 20 spaces, 20 had 30, and so on. Level 90 would have 100 storage spaces, and once one reached level 100, one would have infinite inventory space. But every space occupied beyond the 100th space drained MP.

Basically, at level 1-99, one would have limited inventory space, but it would cost nothing to store anything in there. At level 100, there would be no limit to how much you could store inside there, but exceeding 100 occupied spaces would cause MP to be consumed. The more occupied spaces, the greater the MP drain.

King then thought about his stats, and a window appeared in front of him.

* * *

Name: King

Level: 1

Title: None

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

ST: 100/100

STR: 1

VIT: 1

INT: 1

DEX: 1

LCK: 1

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: None

Passive: None

EXP: 0/100

* * *

 _"So those are my stats..."_ King thought, as his stats window closed. Looking at the weird sphere in hand, King wanted to see its stats, and another window opened.

* * *

Item: [Materialization Sphere]

DMG: 1~100

Tier: F-Class weapon

Value: 100 gold

Description: A sphere which materializes MP into physical objects, can turn into anything the user wishes, as long as the user has enough MP. A strong mental image must be formed or else item won't materialize properly.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 E-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Enchanted Steel (1 kg), 0/10 Lesser Mana Potion

* * *

"Well, first thing to do would be grinding. Now where do I go..."

 **[20 minutes later...]**

After asking some other players for directions, King was now in a plain flatland, killing slimes from afar using his [Materialization Sphere], which turned into a rifle. Apparently, it could turn into anything. King knew, because he jokingly wanted to turn it into a teddy bear, just to test if it really could turn into anything he thought of, and it actually did.

And as King had foreseen, it had one flaw, compared to the other beginner weapons. It drained MP.

As a sword, it drained 10 MP to transform into the sword, and another 5 MP for every hit on a mob. It drained 25 MP to turn into a bow, and materializing arrows cost 5 MP each.

When King materialized the hunting rifle he was using, he felt a splitting headache for a short while, before realizing that he had been drained of 90 MP. Obviously, the rifle was worth a lot of MP. After all, a gun and a bow was incomparable. Each bullet also cost 10 MP to materialize.

Also, MP was directly connected to one's INT stat, so obviously it stemmed from the head. Spending so much MP at once apparently gave people massive headaches, and spending all 100 MP at once even had a chance to knock a person out. Well, if they were still level 1, anyway. At higher levels, players would have higher stats, and at a high enough level, spending all your MP at once would probably not even hurt at all.

Still, at level 1, 10 MP per slime was obviously rather expensive, but hey, it was an instant kill.

Looking further through the scope of the rifle, apart from slimes, King could see other players, also killing slimes, but with other beginner weapons, such as a sword, a bow, a hammer, spear, etc.

"Looks like there's no one here that has the same weapon..." King said, noting that everyone used basic weapons. King could tell they were players by the tags above their head.

"Hm? That group doesn't have tags..." King said, noticing a group of people without tags above their heads.

"NPCs? I didn't think they could even hunt on their own. Kudos to the developers, really. That kind of AI is commendable." King said, secretly giving a thumbs up to the developers.

As King got up, he walked towards the slimes which he killed earlier to pick up the loot. In this game, you had to loot the mobs you killed on your own. Everything was manual, too. Including the harvesting of the {Mana Cores} from the slimes, which required you to literally dig through the dead slimy stuff to collect the cores.

Further ahead, the grassy flatland had less players and more mobs. The players were obviously higher leveled, as when King first entered the flatland, most players were at level 1 to 3, and these players were at level 5 and above. The highest leveled player King spotted was at level 8.

And over by that area, there were bigger slimes, and some wolves.

King was still level 3 from killing the slimes earlier, so he was a little under-leveled to be here. But hey; he had a hunting rifle. Everyone else used bows, spears, axes, and other medieval weapons.

Spotting a wolf pack, King took aim, and shot one of the wolves directly in the head.

Obviously, being rifle bullets which cost like 10 MP, the wolf died instantly.

Now that he was level 3, he could afford to materialize the hunting rifle again, and not get a splitting headache. The most was just a minor migraine for a short while. And if his MP was back to full, King could afford 30 whole bullets.

With every level up, one's stats would raise by 1, and HP, MP and ST would raise by 100. King's current stats were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 3

Title: None

HP: 300/300

MP: 220/300

ST: 300/300

STR: 3

VIT: 3

INT: 3

DEX: 3

LCK: 3

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]

Passive: [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier I: {404/5000}) ]

EXP: 260/300

* * *

King had gotten the first skill when he first used the rifle. When activated, what it did was remove the sway of holding any ranged weapon for a long time, and all around just increased its accuracy. By killing more and more mobs from a distance, and silently, King obtained the second skill when he was on the verge of leveling up to level 3. When activated, it made King's movements almost completely silent, at the cost of ST. The third was just a passive skill which increased the damage dealt with any ranged weapon. For Tier I, King had a 10% increase in ranged weapon damage.

As the wolf he shot at earlier died, the others in its back were startled, before they ran off.

"Looks like even the mobs have good AI. I guess I'll need to shoot at the wolves which stray off. That or the bigger slimes." King said to himself.

Taking aim, King continued his shameless tactic of shooting mobs from the distance of about 90 meters. Any further and the bullet would drop, causing it to miss. But hell, even 50 meters was more than enough.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"Nice, finally level 10." King said, just leveling up from killing another wolf. Just as he reached level 10, his skill-set had changed into like that of an actual sniper's.

* * *

Name: King

Level: 10

Title: None

HP: 1000/1000

MP: 920/1000

ST: 1000/1000

STR: 10

VIT: 10

INT: 10

DEX: 10

LCK: 10

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning I], [Hunter's Grace I] [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier I: {1464/5000}) ]

EXP: 910/1000

* * *

The active skills hadn't changed, but King had gotten two new passive skills.

[Predator's Cunning] increased King's damage output towards a mob when hasn't notice King. In the beginning, it would have an increase of a measly 1.5x attack damage, but if King dealt a full 100 damage, he would deal 150 damage in total from the sneak-attack bonus! And that was just the beginning! From what King read through it's descriptions, it had a total of ten whole tiers! King was currently only on the first tier, imagine if he was on the tenth tier!

The second passive skill, [Hunter's Grace], affected King's movement speed. It increased King's movement speed by a whole 10%, and the final tenth tier would double King's movement speed! Well, the prerequisite was King could not take damage, otherwise the affect would be annulled, and King would have to wait a full 30 seconds for the countdown timer to reset, and the passive effect would activate again.

Unlike [Ranged Weapon Mastery], the other two passive skills were improved based on different parameters set in-game, whereas [Ranged Weapon Mastery] would increase by dealing damage with ranged weapons.

An example on how the damage increase would be affected would be if King dealt 100 damage, the effect would immediately add on a 10% damage increase to the projectile. Adding on sneak-attack, if King dealt 100 damage, the sneak attack multiplier would be 150. But with the effect, the 10% increase would turn the 150 damage straight to 165 damage!

"But still, if I can upgrade the [Materialization Sphere] to the next tier, I wonder what the damage range would be." King wondered aloud.

But no less than 2 seconds later, King forgot about his previous train of thought as he continued mindlessly killing the poor mobs brutally for their delicious EXP.

 **[25 minutes later...]**

"Hm? That's a new mob..." King noted, as he saw through the scope of his hunting rifle, and saw not a slime, not a wolf, but a tiger.

Aside from that, the other mobs didn't have markers above their heads, as they were simple mobs. At most, one would only be able to see their health-bar when damaging them. But this tiger on the other hand, had a tag above it, and the health bar was already showing. The figure wasn't too shabby, either.

Slimes were incredibly weak, and the starting ones usually only had a measly 25 HP. Wolves would usually have 60 HP, but obviously they'd deal more damage, with fangs and all. After that were the bigger slimes, which if compared to their ultra-weak level 1 counterparts which were the size of a football, these slimes would be the size of an exercise ball, a bit bigger than the wolves. They'd have a total of 150 HP.

This tiger, however, had a tag above it, which said {Elite Beast}, and a small white skull beside it. And as King knew from the short little tutorial notes he read while selecting his weapons in the white void, it meant the creature was several levels higher than him. And one skull represented a difference of 5 levels. Two skulls meant a difference of 10 levels, and so on, until it turned from a skull, into a glowing red skull. A glowing red skull meant the difference of 50 levels, and a red skull basically meant 'run for the hills'. Because let's face it, a difference of 50 levels was like that of an ant and a blue whale. Well, figuratively speaking, of course.

This tiger had two white skulls, meaning that it was at least 10 levels higher than King. As King was currently level 15 from farming a lot, it meant the tiger was at least level 25. And it's red health bar was out for display for everyone to see. And it was quite a bit.

The tiger's health bar had a nice little '5000' on it, proudly displaying its massive health-pool. Even if King were to use maximum 100-damage bullets, he'd need a total of 50 bullets. And he'd need all 50 shots to land. Maybe if he landed it square on the head, it'd give a massive 5x damage boost, but even then he'd need a total of 10 bullets. And the span of 10 bullets was enough for the tiger to chase in the direction of the bullets, discover King, and rip his innards out.

"Still, an Elite Beast... that's exactly what I need to upgrade my [Materialization Sphere]..." King said to himself.

Mobs were ranked this way:

{Feral Beast}

{Elite Beast}

{Disastrous Beast}

{Cataclysmic Beast}

{Black Beast}

{Apocalyptic Beast}

{Supreme Beast}

F-Class beast, also known as {Feral Beasts}, were mobs which were hard for normal people to take down, but were okay for average adventurers to defeat. If compared to real-world threats, {Feral Beasts} would be considered Wolf-level threats. Elite beasts were like wild animals that actually pose a threat, like tigers, bears, etc. Which is why the tiger in front of King- well, in King's scope, anyway, was considered an {Elite Beast}.

{Disastrous Beasts} were like Demon-level threats, and King had yet to see one, actually. Then again, he was still level 15, so that much was obvious. {Cataclysmic Beasts} were according to the information given from the game, 'Powerful monstrosities that could lay waste to large kingdoms, and even an Empire may fall if one was encountered.' So if that was converted into information, it was basically something like a more powerful Dragon-level threat.

{Black Beasts} weren't actually black, as per the namesake, but were a class of mobs which were 'An example of an abomination of creation, capable of utterly annihilating all Empires, and many Countries would have to work together to be able to defeat the beast'. In fact, according to the game's lore, the first {Black Beast} was an actual Black Beast, on how it was black in color. It was also a Dragon. They were basically quasi-God level threats.

And finally, were {Apocalyptic Beasts} and {Supreme Beasts}. {Apocalyptic Beasts} were basically unheard of, but were given the classification for mobs which would be able to destroy the entire world, hence the name of 'Apocalyptic'. Finally, were {Supreme Beasts}, which were named so, because according to in-game legend, not lore, LEGEND, that the first 72 God-Masters had worked together to kill a {Supreme Beast}, and the last surviving God-Master managed to kill the {Supreme Beast}, and shaped the galaxy they were in with its remains.

Getting back on track, each mob's class was ranked accordingly, from an F-Class beast, all the way to an S-Class beast. King's current weapon was an F-Class weapon, and what he needs now, is E-Class materials to upgrade his weapon. And the tiger in his scope was just one such E-Class beast. Different mobs had different drops, but what was confirmed was, every mob had to have a {Mana Crystal} in their bodies. Even wolves and slimes.

Lore-wise, humans could use magic after the first Sage discovered how, and since then, humans could always use magic. Mobs on the other hand congeal their mana into a small crystal in their bodies, and would usually be found deposited near their heart. Humans also had their version of a {Mana Crystal}, but it was called {Congealed Wisdom}, and was found right in the middle of the cerebrum, not as a crystal, but as a smooth, jelly-like sphere.

"I'd only need an {Enchanted Steel} ingot and ten {Lesser Mana Potions}, and I'd be able to upgrade my weapon into an E-Class weapon." King said to himself. But even as he wanted the {Mana Crystal} in the tiger's body so badly, he couldn't do anything. Even if he did shoot it in the head. His maximum damage was 100, adding on 50 from the sneak-attack multiplier, and multiplying that by 5 times, King would do a maximum of 750 damage. Adding 10% from his [Ranged Weapon Mastery], King would deal, at the most, 825 damage. And that was only the first shot. The sneak-attack multiplier would disappear after the first shot, unless the tiger somehow hadn't noticed the attack, and King was sure as hell he wasn't landing all of his shots on the head of a moving tiger.

"But what if..." King suddenly had an idea. If he couldn't deal it all at once, he'd deal the damage over a period of time. And seeing as his bullets were all full-metal-jacket rounds now, what if he switched it to hollow-tip rounds, and let the tiger bleed to death?

"I guess we're going with that." King finally decided. He would materialize an automatic battle-rifle, and load it with hollow-point bullets to let the tiger die of bleeding, while he got to safety.

De-materializing his hunting rifle, King materialized an automatic sniper rifle, a SCAR which apparently cost him half his MP at 750 MP, which gave King a small headache. Waiting a while for his MP to regenerate, while keeping an eye on his target, after getting enough, King materialized a full clip of hollow-points, which apparently cost him 400 MP to materialize. Then again one bullet was usually 10 MP. 400 MP for 20 bullets meant one was just 20 MP. Double that of a standard full-metal jacket round, King wasn't complaining. They gave a bleed effect, after all.

Activating his [Take Aim] skill, King got ready, and-

 **-BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM-**

Emptying almost half the entire clip into the tiger's body, landing as many head-shots as he could, the tiger fell down abruptly, not expecting such an attack. More than three-fifths of its health bar had disappeared in less than 3 seconds, and King could still see its health bar deteriorating bit by bit due to the bleed effect.

The wolves beside it, not expecting an attack, first ran further from the tiger, before realizing that it was wounded. As wolves, naturally, they packed together, and attempted to kill the tiger.

Still, a wounded tiger was still a tiger, and it managed to kill at least 3 wolves before the other wolves ran away in fear.

Left with only a fifth of its HP and falling, the tiger slumped down to rest, and King knew it was time to finish the deed. Aiming precise shots at exactly all four of its limbs, the tiger roared out once more, not expecting another attack in the midst of recuperating.

With all four limbs crippled, and less than even 500 HP left, King deduced it was safe enough to appear. Even if some more wolves show up, he could always just materialize a bayonet on the tip of his gun and kill the other wolves. Not to mention, he was level 15. Wolves were level 3 or less. Some special ones, or higher leveled ones like earlier were level 10, but they still had less than 500 HP. King was confident in dealing with them.

As the tiger noticed King approaching it, it knew that King was the one to wound it, but it could do nothing. As the tiger was on its last drips of HP, it looked at King with a face which made it seem like it was pleading. But King didn't notice it, as he waited for the tiger to bleed to death. Who knows, maybe the tiger might be able to kill him immediately with a bite to his neck? Sure, he already shot all four of its limbs, but it was good to be cautious.

Finally, the tiger bled to death, and as soon as it did-

 **[Congratulations, you have obtained the perk, [Sadist]! See perk details for more information.]**

"Sadist? Where'd that come from?" King asked, puzzled. Did he do anything sadistic? If anything, he was just being cautious.

Shaking it off his head, King quickly came back to his senses as he quickly looted the body of the tiger for everything it was worth. The skin, the fangs, the skull, the bones- hell, he basically took everything apart from the flesh and organs. And of course, the {Mana Crystal} was the most important. Tiger skin was probably just a cosmetic item, but that was probably still worth something. And King needed some money. After all, he didn't have any armor, which was why he sniped the animals from afar in the first place. Going against any mob without armor was a surefire way to kill yourself. Unless one was high-leveled enough, anyway.

After he was done, he quickly went back to the starting city, as to avoid any more {Elite Beasts} from appearing. He was confident in taking one down from afar, and only one, but if it was a group, or they ambushed him, King was pretty much dead. Unless he had a [Teleport Stone]. But those were high-level items that cost almost 10 times more than a regular [Teleport Scroll]. Then again, [Teleport Scrolls] could be interrupted and it took a full 5 seconds to activate.

But even a single scroll was worth... what, 200 gold? And [Teleport Stones]... 2000 gold.

Getting back to the city, King then opened up his stats to see what was so special about his new perk.

* * *

Name: King

Level: 20

Title: None

HP: 2000/2000

MP: 2000/2000

ST: 2000/2000

STR: 20

VIT: 20

INT: 20

DEX: 20

LCK: 20

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning II], [Hunter's Grace II] [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier II: {6864/10000}) ]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I]

EXP: 1960/4000

* * *

King stared blankly at his stats. He leveled up more than 5 times by killing an {Elite Beast}? King did nothing but pull the trigger a few times, and boom, 5 level-ups. Not to mention, weren't level-ups usually in the span of 100 EXP? Why did it suddenly double from an assumed 2000 to 4000?

Well, at least his passive skills received a massive boost. All of them already improved a tier, and even the [Ranged Weapon Mastery] improved a tier! Well, he already did more than 5000 damage, with an entire 5000 damage coming from killing an {Elite Beast} all by himself. Other than that, [Predator's Cunning] and [Hunter's Grace] received a tier upgrade, too!

Now, as long as King wasn't detected by any mobs, he would move 20% faster and would deal a 3x damage multiplier! Now, if King dealt 100 damage, it would deal 300 from the sneak bonus, an addition 20% from the [Ranged Weapon Mastery], dealing 360 damage, and if he landed a head shot, it would land a massive 1,800 damage! King would only need three shots to kill the tiger from earlier!

"Still, what does [Sadist] do..." King wondered before a window appeared before him, explaining about the perk.

* * *

[Sadist I]

Description: You killed someone- or something brutally, by dealing more than half of its HP in less than three seconds, and left it to bleed to death, all the while leaving it unable to fight back! You are now a Sadist whom strikes fear into your enemies, and you get more pleasure the more pain you cause to something before it dies!

Effect: Gain the ability to see a mob's pain and fear. Gain +20% EXP by brutally killing mobs and striking fear into their hearts. A minimum of 20 pain and fear must be dealt in order for extra 20% EXP effect to appear. The more pain you cause it, the more EXP you receive when it finally expires. You gain a chance for a Sadist's Strike, which deals 1000% more damage, or 10x more damage. The lower their HP, and the more fearful they are of you, the greater the chance for a Sadist's Strike to activate. If a mob has less than 1% HP left, a Sadist's Strike will immediately be activated. If a Boss mob has less than 0.1% HP left, a Sadist's Strike will also immediately be activated. Sadist's Strike also deals 10 times more pain than an actual strike, increasing your EXP gain from killing the mob.

Requirements to upgrade perk:

Deal 0/50,000 points of pain,

Deal 0/500 points of pain onto a single mob,

Deal 0/100 Sadist's Strike,

Kill 0/10 mobs with 100 points of fear for you,

Kill 0/1 Boss mob with a Sadist's Strike while the Boss mob is running away from you fearfully.

* * *

"Oh, so I got it from killing the tiger that way..." King finally understood how he got the perk. So he got it through pure luck. Still, if his stats were visible to others, he'd rather this stat not be visible. But unless he allowed them to see his stats, there was no way other players could see his stats.

However, he really did feel no mercy to mobs, whether the pain or fear he caused them. They were just AI, after all.

Still, 20% extra EXP from killing enemies with at least 20 pain or fear? That was good! Now King didn't need to constantly aim for head shots. The more 'pain' he caused, the more EXP he'd get! Basically, aim for either the head, or the joints. Those always caused pain. King knew. The last time he twisted his ankle, it hurt like a bitch. Now imagine a bullet there. That was bound to cause a lot of pain points.

"Well, time to sell these for money." King said to himself, referring to the loot he received.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"20 gold coins."

"No. 10 gold coins."

"You kidding? 10 gold coins for 20 wolf pelts? You think I was born yesterday or something? Market price is at least 1 gold coin per wolf pelt."

"That's market price. I need to make a profit, here."

"Double the profit? Sorry, not selling."

"Fine, fine, 15 gold coins."

"17. Take it or leave it."

"Earning 3 gold coins from selling 20 whole wolf-pelts? Good day, sir."

"Good day to you, too."

"Alright, alright, you're twisting my arm. 17 gold coins."

"That's better."

King finally haggled the price down with the NPC. It was only right before he tried to sell some did he realize the bargaining with the NPCs for good prices and all that was pretty much completely manual. King wouldn't be surprised if he found out that some NPCs were actually people being paid to control the character, with how good their AI is. But he was sure they were actually completely AI. After all, the creator said that only players whom have access to the helmets can enter the servers and play as players. There are no game-masters, no moderators, nothing. Everything was one giant AI.

King would be impressed, if he didn't know about Metal Knight. Everything he had was either remote-controlled by him personally, or completely just AI at work. And on how human they were, it was comparable to the NPC he interacted with earlier.

" _Still, one used it for hero activities, while the other is just used on a game character."_ King noted mentally.

After a while, King managed to sell everything, except for the {Mana Crystals} and the loot from the tiger. King read that {Mana Crystals} could be made into [Mana Potions], and King wanted to do so.

Apparently, according to the in-game data... aside from the game's 'common sense', which was basically the name of the tutorial notes given to every player, anything else, from smithing, alchemy, beast-taming, etc, were all gleaned from within the game's characters. As King wanted to make a {Mana Potion}, he needed to visit an apothecary.

Twisting and turning, navigating through the bustling city, full of players and NPCs alike, King finally found a shop. It looked like a rather large business, and was probably a franchise.

*cling*

"Welcome to The Potion! We have potions for anything! From snake-antivenom to healing potions, we have everything! Can we get you something?" An enthusiastic attendant greeted. What was different from the other NPCs was that this attendant had bunny-ears. One of the playable races for players as well, a demi-human. A staple in novels and video-games alike.

"I'd like to trade some {Mana Crystals}, and possibly turn them into [Mana Potions]. If possible, I'd like to learn how to do so, as well." King answered bluntly.

"Oh, a budding alchemist? Or a mage? Well, we don't refuse anyone! And we certainly don't stop anyone from viewing our work! Unless it's one of our specialty potions, teehee!" The attendant cheerfully replied.

Following the attendant through the back-door, King was greeted with a waft of medicinal smells, and going further in, it was nauseatingly powerful.

"Would you like a mask?" The attendant offered, already wearing one herself.

"No thanks, I'm fine." It was powerful, but King could handle it.

As they reached the back, the attendant called out, "Mr Fleming, a customer wishes to turn some {Mana Crystals} into [Mana Potions]! He'd also like to watch!"

An aged voice called back, "Alright. Come here, and be careful not to knock anything over."

Opening a wooden door, it was revealed the room was full of vials and materials, and an incredibly strong smell of herbs assaulted King's nose.

" _Holy shit, it's almost as bad as the time I went through the perfume department."_ King thought.

"Well then, where are the {Mana Crystals}?" The old man, known as Mr Fleming asked.

"Here." King said, handing him all his F-Class {Mana Crystals} which he got from constantly killing wolves, slimes, bigger wolves, and bigger slimes. The only E-Class {Mana Crystal} he had was one he got from the tiger, and he was keeping that to upgrade his Materialization Sphere.

"Well, that's quite the amount." Mr Fleming said in surprise. Even the bunny-eared attendant was shocked. A few hundred {Mana Crystals} was quite the sight. Although they were only F-Class, it was still quite good. If it was an E-Class {Mana Crystal}, however, he'd be able to make 100 [Lesser Mana Potions] with just one crystal. But for F-Class {Mana Crystals}, it'd take ten crystals for one [Lesser Mana Potion].

Alright. Making [Mana Potions] are really easy. Even an amateur, or even a beginner could make one. First off, you grind them down as finely as you can. The fineness of sand is enough, but the finer the {Mana Crystal} powder, the faster the potion is made." Mr Fleming explained, taking out a mortar and pestle, as he ground ten of the {Mana Crystals} King handed him.

"Then, you have to soak it in water." The ground {Mana Crystals}, which were the about the fineness of sand, was then put into a small bowl of water.

"Lastly, you just have to infuse it with your own Mana." Mr Fleming said, before a blue glow appeared on his hands, and soon the bowl was covered in a blue sheen as well.

After 30 seconds, the water with the ground {Mana Crystals} had become more bluish in color, and when the potion was poured into a small potion bottle, the ground {Mana Crystals} were nowhere to be found.

"And that's that. Every [Mana Potion] is made the same way, even the legendary [Greater Mana Potions]. The cost of a [Lesser Mana Potion] is usually 20 gold coins, but seeing as you provided me with the materials, the cost of refining it is pretty much free. Well, I guess I'll just charge you two gold coins for the lesson and the potion bottle." Mr Fleming answered.

Handing him two gold coins, King thanked him before leaving the store, taking the {Mana Crystals} with him.

"Hmm, I suppose he just came here to learn how to make a [Mana Potion]. After all, he had hundreds of [Mana Crystals] and yet he didn't ask me to refine them for him." Mr Fleming noted.

"Ah, well. I suppose he wants to sell them on his own, or something." Mr Fleming assumed.

Of course, this was AI at work, so King really couldn't care less. Well, the responses which were rather human-like would impress him, but anything the AI would say was pretty much un-cared for.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

After managing to buy some {Enchanted Steel}, heart bleeding at the same time due to it costing an entire 500 gold for a single kilogram, King then went out of the city and back into the grassy flatland so he could find a spot for him to refine potions. Well, he could just be at once place and refine them normally, but King didn't want to attract attention. After all, the way he was going to grind them was...

"Fuck, that's a headache." King said, grabbing his head in pain.

He materialized one of those high-tech super-crushers which could grind stones into literally powder. Ultra-fine powder, too. And the MP cost... 1500. Twice the price of the SCAR he materialized.

Putting all of his {Mana Crystals} into the crusher, a whole 220 of them, King prepared exactly 2.2 liters of water before leaving. King also learnt that one [Mana Potion], no matter the grade, was always at 100 ml per potion.

As the fine {Mana Crystal} powder was slowly poured into the water, King infused it with his MP, planning to refine a whole batch at once.

After around 5 minutes, King ran out of MP, but it was about the same time he finished making the potions, as the water with {Mana Crystal} powder transformed into that familiar shade of blue King recognized.

Taking out exactly 22 potion bottles, King managed to scrape out every last bit of the potion. Well, mostly because his crusher was made of his own Mana, so he just manipulated it to scrape the entirety of the potions into the bottles.

"Alright. I have everything. Now how do I upgrade this..."

King then realized he forgot to ask someone on how to upgrade the weapon.

"Fuck."

 **[5 minutes later...]**

King went back to the city, and looked for the building which looked as similar as possible to a Mages Guild or something. Anything magical-related could always be found there.

After searching for a bit, King found a building with a massive sign which said 'Mages Guild'.

Walking in, it looked like an everyday guild, but mostly everyone inside was a mage, so there were no brutish adventurers, no drunkards, no cliche stuff like that. Everyone inside was either a civilized mage, or someone whom wanted to post a request for the Mages Guild to solve.

"Oh, welcome to the Mages Guild. Can we help with anything?" A bespectacled young man wearing magi robes asked.

"Yes. I'd like to know how can you upgrade a [Materialization Sphere]." King went straight to the point.

"A [Materialization Sphere]? Oh, you must be a researcher on ancient ruins! A [Materialization Sphere] is a famous ancient-civilization item, that can manifest Mana into whatever the caster desires! Only 20 have ever been found!" The bespectacled young man said smilingly. He seemed to like this kind of topic.

"You seem to be interested in this?" King asked. He did not expect the [Materialization Sphere] he got was so rare. Only 20 ever found? That meant he was either extremely lucky, or only according to in-game lore is a [Materialization Sphere] rare, whereas in game-play it would actually be highly common. After all, he found it after he was digging through the weapon box for some time.

"Oh, yes! I'd hope to be able to see one in my lifetime!" The bespectacled man said, his face full of yearning. "Although 20 such [Materialization Sphere] have been discovered, they're only accessed by the highest-level Court Magi under the Imperial Emperor!"

"Hmm. So do they know about different types of [Materialization Sphere]?" King asked.

"Oh, yes! They discovered how to improve the grade of one by total accident, as well!" The bespectacled man explained. "Once, a Court Magi was trying to research more on how a [Materialization Sphere] worked, but then he accidentally spilled a potion on it, and then, the sphere absorbed the potion! Intrigued, the Court Magi immediately ordered a servant to fetch some potions for him! It turns out, that a [Materialization Sphere] not only had the ability to materialize anything out of Mana, it could absorb potions and use as a source of Mana without draining the caster's MP! So then-"

"Alright, stop, stop, stop." King interrupted. He had the feeling if he didn't interrupt, he would probably go on for a long time. "I just want to know how to upgrade the [Materialization Sphere]. I already know about it being able to absorb [Mana Potions] to use as fuel." King said. He wasn't lying, either.

Just earlier, before entering the Mages guild, King decided to pour a [Lesser Mana Potion] onto the [Materialization Sphere], and it absorbed every single bit of it. Not leaving a drop. He read through the 'common sense' tab and read that there were 'magical weapons' which could use Mana to increase their damage or create an effect. One could also pour a [Mana Potion] on it so that the weapon would use the Mana contained in the potion instead of the caster's own Mana. King tested it on the [Materialization Sphere] to see if it had the same effect, and it did.

"Ah, sorry. You're a researcher too, so you'd probably know about Sir Abrupto Fortuna discovering it!" The bespectacled young mage said sheepishly.

" _Abrupto Fortuna... abrupt fortune... The developers are humorous, that's for sure."_ King thought sarcastically.

"Anyway, he found the way to upgrade it through sheer luck, too! Right after he discovered that a [Materialization Sphere] could store Mana, the [Materialization Sphere] started vibrating, and he discovered the {Enchanted Steel} on his quill was vibrating too! Cleaning the ink off of his quill, he placed them close together, and then the {Enchanted Steel} seemed to have liquefied, as it stuck itself onto the surface of the [Materialization Sphere]! Then-"

"Alright, enough." King interrupted the guy again. "So basically add potion, add material, and add sphere. That's all there is to it." King directly simplified it.

"Well... yes." The young mage nodded.

"Alright, thanks." King said, leaving the building immediately. He was afraid the boy might continue talking about the [Materialization Sphere] if he let him. So King immediately escaped. He still had leveling up to do, dammit.

So, as usual, King went back to the grassy flatland.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"Ah, shit. I forgot to ask where the {E-Class Mana Crystal} came into play..." King said, as he held up a crystal in his hands.

"Well, no need to cry over spilled milk. The guy that discovered it discovered it through sheer dumb luck, so it shouldn't be all that complicated." King was optimistic. It can't surely be all that hard...

Taking out a wooden bowl he bought before leaving the city again, he put the [Materialization Sphere] in the bowl, before pouring ten whole [Lesser Mana Potions] in. After he did, the [Materialization Sphere] started to vibrate, and ingot of {Enchanted Steel} beside him started to vibrate, too. King then took the ingot of {Enchanted Steel} and placed it onto the sphere, which quickly liquefied without needing to heat up, as it coated the [Materialization Sphere].

As soon as all the {Enchanted Steel} melded themselves onto the sphere, the {E-Class Mana Crystal} in King's hands began to vibrate as well, so King instinctively put the crystal into the molten sphere of {Enchanted Steel}, and soon, the sphere shrunk down to its original size as the final parts of the refinement were carried out automatically by the sphere itself.

King watched the sphere with bated breath, waiting for the process to finish. He didn't ask about the time it took for the sphere to finish upgrading, so he didn't know what to expect.

After a full minute, the still-liquid parts of the {Enchanted Steel} started to settle, as the previous patterns on the sphere appeared again, and the sphere stopped moving, going silent.

King carefully and slowly picked up the sphere, as if afraid the wind would blow it from his hands, and when he checked it's stats... elation filled his being.

* * *

Item: [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]

DMG: 1~10,000

Tier: E-Class weapon

Value: 10,000 gold

Description: A sphere which materializes MP into physical objects, can turn MP into anything the user wishes, as long as the user has enough MP. A sufficiently strong mental image must be formed or else item won't materialize perfectly with intended effects.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 D-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Mage's Gold (1 kg), 0/10 Mediocre Mana Potion

* * *

The damage value had shot from a maximum of 100 to 10,000, and from the effects, it seems like he didn't need such a strong mental image to form an item this time.

King thought about his SCAR that he used earlier, and it appeared faster and instead of being fully azure-blue like the other weapons he materialized, it started to have some color of its own, with the scope being black in color, the body of the gun being tan colored, and black-rimmed recoil-compensating stock. Well, it was his mental image, anyway. Usually they were grey in color. But after playing CS:GO for way too long, his idea of a SCAR was pretty much stuck onto the CS:GO one.

What made him happiest, however, was the increase in its damage range. If he dealt a maximum of 10,000 damage, he would have a 3x damage multiplication value from sneak attacks, and if he landed a head-shot, multiply it by 5, he would deal 150,000 damage, and adding 20% from his [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier II)], he would deal, at most, at once, 180,000 damage. More than enough to completely one-shot the tiger from earlier.

"Still, why is the damage value drastically different?" King wondered. Then, it clicked. The F-Class sphere had a maximum damage value of 100, when the starting slimes only had 25, and the wolves had 60. Even the strongest F-Class beast he encountered had 500 HP, and a shot to the head with a sneak attack was enough to one-shot it. It was just the property of the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] itself. However, killing the next D-Class beast would be, to say the least... difficult.

Checking the damage value of the SCAR itself, it had a total of 1000 base damage, far from it's maximum possible 10,000 damage rating. Still, even without the sneak-attack value, five shots were enough to kill the tiger from earlier. Well, it was realistic, King admitted. Bullets or not, unless it was a head-shot, a tiger doesn't die from like, one bullet. Unless it was a rocket launcher or something.

Actually, it only needed a strong-enough mental image... right?

And a rocket launcher appeared.

"No, no, no, no. I didn't mean that." King said, de-materializing the rocket launcher.

"Still, I've been playing for about an hour and a half. And I say it's quite good." King said, commenting on the game. "Interesting an amazing game and all... but my one purpose for buying the helmet..."

At that moment, King had remembered what he truly bought the helmet for. He had sated his curiosity about the first VRMMORPG in existence, and now, onto the main thing he wanted to do.

"Doki-Doki Sisters in VR... it will be legendary." King said, brimming with excitement.

King logged out of the game, bringing him back to the screen which was displayed on the inside of his Orbis helmet. Taking off his helmet, King stretched his body because he was in the same position for an entire 1 and a half hours.

Soon, however, King noticed an anomaly.

"Wait, I'm logged out, right? Why's my HP, MP and ST bar all doing here?"

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter...**

"Hold on, the developers never said anything about side-effects. Maybe this is just an aftereffect?" King wondered aloud. It was strange, really. In real-life, he would only have all 5 sensations, and in the game, the only extra would be the HP, MP and ST bars. Yet, when he awoke from the game, the HP, MP and ST bar were still there.

It was really just three bars which were always on the bottom of his field of view, so it was discomforting.

 _"If this could go away faster..."_ King thought, annoyed at the side effects. The second he thought that, the three bars of red, blue and green disappeared.

"Huh, that was fast. Still, annoying side effect." King said. "What next, my inventory appears?" King joked.

And when he said that, his inventory appeared on the right side of his field of view.

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	2. Chapter 2: Orbis Online

**Chapter 2: Orbis Online**

* * *

"Hold on, the developers never said anything about side-effects. Maybe this is just an aftereffect?" King wondered aloud. It was strange, really. In real-life, he would only have all 5 sensations, and in the game, the only extra would be the HP, MP and ST bars. Yet, when he awoke from the game, the HP, MP and ST bar were still there.

It wasn't really just three bars which were always on the bottom of his field of view, so it was a little discomforting.

 _"If this could go away faster..."_ King thought, annoyed at the side effects. The second he thought that, the three bars of red, blue and green disappeared.

"Huh, that was fast. Still, annoying side effect." King said. "What next, my inventory appears?" King joked.

And when he said that, his inventory appeared on the right side of his field of view.

"Huh. Another side-effect? Man, those developers should've warned us. This one is more annoying than the previous one." King said. And when he did, the inventory disappeared.

"Strange. Still, hope they fix that soon enough." King said, rubbing his eyes to make sure the inventory was really gone.

"Let me guess, my stats appear next." King joked again.

Lo and behold, before his eyes, his status bar appeared.

"Okay, once is a coincidence, twice is could be luck. The third time means something is definitely wrong." King said, realizing something was amiss. Every time he stated something, or thought about something, it would happen. Based on his in-game stuff, anyway.

Thinking about his inventory again, it showed up, but with his in-game items inside. A tiger pelt, tiger bones, tiger fangs, tiger _everything_ but flesh and organs. That, and a wooden bowl, and one very important thing.

King took out his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] from his inventory, and like the game, it could materialize into anything. King knew because he was thinking of a pen at the time, and a pen swiftly materialized from his own Mana.

"This is... just like every other novel I've read that involved reincarnations. Getting some super-power and all that. Is this happening to me, or..." King said, pinching his thigh. A sharp pain soon emanated form where he pinched himself.

"Ouch- yep. Not dreaming." King said, conforming that he was currently awake and not in some crazy dream.

King then picked up a kitchen knife, and thought about its stats.

"Surely something that doesn't come from the game doesn't have stats, right?" King said aloud.

He was wrong.

* * *

Item: Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife

DMG: 10~20

Tier: F-Class Weapon

Value: 15 gold

Description: An everyday kitchen knife. Can be used as a weapon. Has bleed effect of 1 damage every second for 10 seconds every hit.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 Superior Whetstone, 0/1 Titanium-Tungsten Alloy {60% Titanium 40% Tungsten Content} (20 g)

* * *

"So even a kitchen knife can be upgraded, huh..." King said, reading the kitchen knife's stats. What surprised him was that the knife had stats better than some weapons in the game, too. A common dagger dealt 5~15 damage, and a sword did 15~25 damage. A spear did 25~75 damage, which was why the spear was the strongest starting weapon in the game. Well, excluding the [Materialization Sphere], anyway.

"I wonder..." King said, picking up his multi-use aluminium tea-pan which kept him company for almost 10 years. He bought it first when he was just 20, when he was in college, and it accompanied him until now.

* * *

Item: King's Aluminium Tea-Pan

DMG: 25~50

Tier: F-Class Weapon

Value: 50 gold

Description: An aluminium tea-pan. Can be used as a bludgeoning weapon. Gives extra 10% EXP when cooking. Food cooked with [King's Aluminium Tea-Pan] has 10% increased beneficial effects. Personal property of King, Rank 7 S-Class Hero.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 Tungsten-Titanium Alloy {70% Tungsten 30% Titanium Content} (100 g), 0/1 Teflon (1 g), 0/1 Chromium (10 g)

* * *

"Wow. I can use my tea-pan as a weapon." King smiled wryly. Never did he ever think of using his tea-pan as a weapon, yet its lowest damage rating was comparable to a spear!

"Only difference is, I can upgrade my tea-pan and kitchen knife easily, as the materials can be afforded. Except the Tungsten-Titanium alloys. But apart from that, they're easier to upgrade compared to my [Materialization Sphere] to a [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]." King stated.

"Still, I get an increased 10% EXP from cooking with my tea-pan? It even has an increased 10% beneficial effects for food cooked in it?" King asked himself, puzzled. Why did his tea-pan have such effects for some reason?

"Well, that's not the most pressing matter." King shook his head. "What's more important is..."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?"

King still wasn't over on the fact that he for some reason had gained abilities comparable to the protagonists of those novels and the manga that he had read. Not that he was complaining, mind you.

He still hadn't comprehended what was going on. Much less complain about it.

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"Phew... Calm down, me. There's bound to be a reason for all of this." King calmed himself down. If it weren't for him soundproofing his apartment when he first moved in, his neighbors would have been puzzled on why King, the widely acclaimed 'World's Strongest Man', an S-Class hero no less, was screaming on the top of his lungs for 15 whole minutes.

"I mean, this could be good, I could level up and gain EXP enough for me to get stronger, so I won't be a fraud..." King tried to look on the bright side of things.

"But what if the ability disappears on me? What if some monsters appear that are too strong for me to handle?" King then went back to worrying.

Ten minutes of pacing later, King breathed out a sigh.

"Well, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. For now, I should figure out what's going on..." King said, checking out his abilities.

Currently, he could do anything he could do in the game, including use magic. Well, he had an MP bar for a reason.

"So, can I upgrade things?" King wondered.

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"Here you go, Mr King. There's no need to pay for any of this, the Heroes Association will shoulder all costs." A Heroes Association employee handed King a black box with the Heroes Association logo on it. It was full of Titanium-Tungsten alloy which he requested earlier.

" _I honestly wanted to pay, but I guess this would be the fastest method to get what I needed. I guess being an S-Class hero does has its benefits, aside from its pay..."_ King thought. He felt guilty for requesting this from the Heroes Association without paying them, but hey, an S-Class hero was an S-Class hero. His presence stopped criminals already, and just from him living in City M, the crime rate of city M was the lowest. Well- after City A was wiped off the map, City M was just the second-most crime-free city.

Difference was, City A had the deterrence force of the entire Heroes Association Headquarters. City M had King alone. That was how much weight King's presence had.

Sure, he wasn't really as strong as people called him to be, but at least he did something. Intimidate all other criminals.

But hopefully he could properly get stronger this time. After all, if the stronger King's in-game character, the stronger King was in real life, then the better it was for King. At least his title as an S-Class hero wouldn't be for show anymore. And if some monster decides to actually fight King, he wouldn't need to run away.

Remembering what Saitama said to him before, " _Get strong for real, huh?"_ King thought to himself. Back then, he took it with a grain of salt. After all, it was more than just a pipe dream to be able to catch up with the other S-Class heroes with his strength at the time.

Now, it looked like he would be able to actually get stronger. With the materials problem solved, King could now start his experiment to test whether his everyday tools could be upgraded to decent weapons. There was just one problem he was facing now.

"How do I actually upgrade these things?"

King actually gained information on how to upgrade his [Materialization Sphere] through in-game information, but for these... The best King could do was melt down the materials and coat the item with it, and use the respective items to upgrade it?

"First, I guess I'll coat the kitchen knife in the metal, and then sharpen it with a whetstone?" King guessed. Still, if he guessed wrong, best-case scenario, he has an overpriced kitchen-knife which would be nearly indestructible. Worst-case, he'd have to throw away both the kitchen knife and the material.

Sure, he didn't actually pay for it, but a waste was a waste, and King disliked waste.

"Hmm, maybe I need to upgrade it the same way I upgrade in-game items?" King wondered, before remembering something.

"Oh, yeah, I wonder what about that black combat knife I won when I participated in that small gaming tournament?" King remembered about his black combat knife. All it did was look cool to him, but if a standard kitchen knife could deal more damage than an ordinary dagger, maybe his combat knife would deal even more damage than a sword?

If so, maybe if wolves ambush him while he was sniping other mobs, he could deal with them using his dagger- if he could even bring items into the game, that is.

Picking it up from his bedroom, King checked it's stats, and...

"The fuck?"

* * *

Item: King's Combat Knife (1st Form)

DMG: 2,500~5,000

Tier: Special Weapon (Limitless Tiers)

Value: N/A (Cannot Be Sold)

Description: Black combat knife. Property of King, Rank 7 S-Class Hero. Soul-bound to King. Cannot be owned by anyone but King. Gains stronger properties as weapon is upgraded. When upgraded more than 6 times, [King's Combat Knife] will undergo transformation into its true form.

Effects:

[Bloodlust]: Increases damage dealt by 100%. Effect is gained when 10 enemies are killed under 5 seconds. Effect lasts for 30 seconds. Effect is renewed with every kill.

 **IMPORTANT NOTE:** Can only be used for a combined period of four hours each day. Time spent not using the weapon from previous days can carry over to the next day. Allotted time of weapon use is increased with every upgrade, and after five upgrades, can be used indefinitely without time-limit. 

Objectives needed to complete to upgrade weapon to next tier:

\- 0/50,000 enemies killed with [King's Combat Knife].

\- 0/5,000 enemies killed with [King's Combat Knife] when under [Bloodlust] effect.

\- 0/500 enemies killed under 5 minutes with [King's Combat Knife].

* * *

"... So where'd the overpowered stats come from?" King asked himself, which he was sure he wasn't getting an answer, seeing as it was a rhetorical one.

No but really, all he did was use it as a cool thing to look at, or opening boxes. When did his knife get so many overpowered stats? And an extra 100% damage increase for killing 10 enemies in under 5 seconds? Sure, it had to be done with the knife, but with that damage value, it would be easy, so long as they don't attack from a range. And they clumped up together.

"Well, its OP-ness aside, at least this would make my journey to being stronger easier..." King said, looking at the knife in a different light. Previously, he just thought of it as a cool knife he won once. Now, it looked like it was a bloody reaper's sickle. Sure, it didn't have the damage range of his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], but even a SCAR, a gun that is basically an auto-sniper, was not even as powerful as the knife's lowest damage rating. At it's highest, the knife could dish out five times more damage than the SCAR would.

And what did he read? Limitless tiering? Would that mean that he would be able to upgrade his weapon limitlessly?

Well, at least they balanced themselves. Out of a full day, King would only be able to pull it out for a grand total of four hours a day. That meant King couldn't just use it on any random mob. He should save up the time for boss fights and such.

"Still, it doesn't use materials to upgrade, but kills. I guess this will be easier to upgrade?" King said, looking at the knife.

...In the far future, King would laugh himself silly for thinking this knife was easy to upgrade. But that was a thing for the future.

"Well, I guess it's time to check out my theory." King said, before preparing to enter Orbis Online once more.

"Hopefully I can bring my knife in. Or else this'd be a total waste of what my knife is capable of." King said, before entering the game-world once more.

...

...

"Urgh, fuck. That feeling is not going to be normal for the next month or so." King said, getting back to his senses. It was as if he was falling down, then up, and then going back down in hyper-speed.

King then opened his inventory, and... "Yes." King could take out his knife. And kitchen knife. And aluminium tea pot.

"I guess, the best thing to do now is grind." King said, before going to the grassy flatland to grind some more. Currently, he had no clear plan yet, so he may as well get stronger in the meantime. After all, nothing could possibly go wrong with getting stronger.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

King had just finished killing everything he could see, and ahead of him was another E-Class beast, or so to say, another {Elite Beast}.

Instead of a 5,000 mark, it had a 2,500 on it, and instead of a tiger, it was a lion this time. And the difference, was this one wasn't alone. If it was just alone, King would simply need to cripple its limbs and make sure it wouldn't be able to reach King, as he waited for the thing to bleed to death, and land the final blow with his combat knife. But, the problem was, there was more than one. It wasn't two, or three, or four.

A whole pride of lions. That's right, a whole pride of {Elite Beasts}. King counted at least 15 of them. Sure, they were weaker than the tiger, but the tiger was alone. King just needed to shoot all four limbs. This time, King needed to shoot 60 limbs in total for him to be considered fully safe. Also, he was only 500 meters away from them this time. It was further than the hunting rifle, since he was using a literal auto-sniper. However, as far as he was form them, King still wasn't sure if he could actually shoot every single one of their limbs out.

Sure, he could just shoot them with just three bullets each, as strangely enough, three bullets was enough to kill one lion, but King didn't want to just do that. King wanted the extra 20% bonus EXP from killing them with at least 20 points of pain and fear.

"So how should I do this..." Naturally, King was unwilling to give up. If all of them gave even half the EXP of the tiger, King would still get a lot of EXP, 15 lions would be worth around 7 tigers!

"Hmm?" King noticed that it began to darken, and as soon as he noticed it, it was already about to be nightfall. Through the scope, King could even see some of the lions beginning to sleep.

"Things cannot be more perfect." King said to himself, smiling a smile that was not quite a smile.

If it was at night, he could more that perfectly kill them all quietly, AND sadistically. Well, he wasn't really happy about the 'sadistic' part, but the 'getting EXP' part. Sadism wasn't his thing, but if it got him more EXP, fuck it, sadism it is then.

Sneaking up behind the lions, King ensured not to make a sound, or else he was pretty much fucked.

He was right behind a lion, and it was a female one, fast asleep.

King swiftly stabbed its throat with a knife conjured from his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] and then moved to stab each of its limbs to avoid it moving about too much.

The lion barely awoke when King had basically robbed it of all its fighting power.

" _With a torn throat, it'll die from suffocation or just bleed to death. No worries about it waking up the other lions, then. I'll take my time to increase its fear and pain points."_ King mentally planned. He was going to slowly, bit by bit kill all the lions in the pride one by one this way.

Floating above its face were two numbers, one in red, which was a glowing '50', and one in yellow, which was a glowing '10'.

 _"Seems like its not very scared now. Well, that'll have to change."_ King thought again, and soon continued stabbing the lion all over its body.

After a few dozen stabs, the lion finally died with a total of '220' pain and '103' fear on it. Seems like fear was pretty much literally just fear, as in the beginning when the lion was just immobilized, it attempted to bite King, though when its fear reached '75', it just tried to escape.

Leaving the lion's corpse for skinning later, King moved to the next lion, and it was just rinse and repeat.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

King was down to the last lion, and it was the biggest one yet. A male lion with more HP than the others, it had a total of 4,500 HP. Still, it was lesser than the 5,000 HP the tiger he killed had.

" _Just to be sure..."_ King thought, before taking out his overpowered combat knife. He hadn't gotten any kills with it yet, seeing as most of his kills came from him putting a bullet through his enemies heads, or in the case of E-Class beasts, their joints, and then finally their head.

Also, because of that, King gained a new skill.

[Headhunter], as its name states, was a skill which increased the damage King dealt if he were to land a head-shot. Normally it would be a 5x multiplier, but with the new passive skill, the damage for King had changed to a 6x multiplier now.

Getting back to King's knife, it was a just in case something happened. Just two or three hits would be enough to kill the lion, so he had it on standby. In case he snapped a branch or something stupid. King wasn't taking risks.

Walking closer and closer, King got his materialized knife out, and went to work.

As per usual, the lion wasn't able to react fast enough. Mostly because King skipped the throat since it was the only lion left, and he wasn't worried about the lion waking any other lions up. King double-checked. There were no other lions around.

A loud roar sounded out, scaring everything alive within a 4 kilometer radius. The noise even reached the main city. Well, only until the edges of the wall. Not the interior, populated part of the city.

Only King was unaffected since he was already mentally prepared. Not to mention, this wasn't all that loud, compared to when he watched that video that ear-raped him. Only difference was the video was painful whereas this was just loud and King could feel the vibrations throughout his body. Then again, that's a characteristic of a lion's roar.

Only reason King knew this was because of a trip to the zoo when he was in first grade. He was scared, sure. But it was only for a while. He wasn't so scared until he peed his pants like some others did.

"Well then, time to raise its pain and fear points." King said to himself, but after the first few stabs, an idea struck him.

"I remember than a second-degree burn in the most painful burn you can get, and every other pain more painful is either a disease or a genetic defect, so..." King then stopped his stabbing, before materializing a lawnmower from his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] to cut the grass surrounding the lion.

 **[20 minutes later...]**

King had finally managed to collect a large mound of cut grass, and to be sure he didn't burn the entire area, King made sure that there was a ring that was clear of grass, which was between the rest of the plains and the part which King wanted to burn. IE, the one with the one surviving lion on it.

Taking two twigs, King utilized the common method of rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. When a small spark was seen, King continued spinning as hard as he could until a small fire was seen. King then put some dry twigs and grass on it, and left it to burn. When a real fire was finally sparking, King took the rest of the dry grass and piled it surrounding the lion, and set it aflame with the fire.

"That should do it. I should be able to continue skinning the other lions now." King said, stretching his back and leaving the area. The fire would do the job well enough. In the meantime, he had already dragged out the rest of the lion's corpses, and begun to skin them. King was perfectly happy with letting one burn to ash. He just wanted to see how many 'pain' points would accumulate afterwards. 1 out of 15 wasn't that bad.

Every so often, King would check on the lion burning while skinning the others. Currently, he was on the third lion, and the flames started to burn the lion already. Steadily, the red numbers on the lion were increasing, but for some reason, the yellow numbers weren't, and instead were dipping into the negatives.

"Is it something like anger so it forgets its fear?" King wondered, looking at the burning body of the lion. It was thrashing and twisting angrily, more so then when it saw the remaining bodies of its pride. Its 'fear' points had dipped into the negatives as well at the time.

"Well, hopefully it can even go up to 500, then another requisite to the perk to upgrade can be completed.' King said to himself, before continuing to skin the lion corpses.

After the fifth lion corpse, King checked the lion again, and it was almost dead, and wasn't struggling nearly as much as earlier anymore. The 'pain' had risen to 800, and 'fear' was at 600.

"I guess burning is pretty useful for the 'Sadism' perk, huh?" King noted. And as the lion's HP bar dwindled to nothingness-

 **[Congratulations, you have obtained the perk, [Pyromaniac]! See perk details for more information.]**

"Another perk, already? Nice!" King pumped his fist. He almost took out his SCAR to finish the lion off to get a Sadist's Strike charge, but who knew because he was too late in killing the lion on his own, he got a new perk!

Still, 'Pyromaniac'? First, it's Sadism, now it's Pyromaniac. Why am I getting such criminal-like perks?" King sighed. He didn't mind, but it made him a little uncomfortable.

Checking his current stats, he was probably currently the highest-leveled player in the game.

* * *

Name: King

Level: 35

Title: None

HP: 35,000/35,000

MP: 35,000/35,000

ST: 35,000/35,000

STR: 350

VIT: 350

INT: 350

DEX: 350

LCK: 350

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement II], [Vital Strikes]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning III], [Hunter's Grace III], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {58,645/1,000,000}) ], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {12,403/1,000,000}) ]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

EXP: 340,640/350,000

* * *

"Nice. Already level 35." King cheered. "Huh, when'd it turn to 35,000?" King saw the difference. At level 1, King just had 100 HP, MP and ST. At level 35, if going linearly, he should be at 3,500 HP, MP and ST! Where'd the extra zero come from?

"Then again, the mobs grow stronger and stronger with each level, so I guess this is a way for players to match up to the mobs as they grow stronger." King guessed.

After a long period of grinding, King managed to upgrade his base skills, and as seen in above, he got some new skills, too.

[Vital Strikes] was a skill that allowed for certain 'vital' points to be shown, and when attacked at the spot would deal 3 times the normal damage and has a chance to cripple whatever part the strike was aiming at.

[Melee Weapon Mastery] was gained when King killed a few mobs with his materialized mana-knives, so with each stab to increase the pain value, King dealt enough damage for the skill to be gained. King now dealt an extra 30% more damage with melee weapons, so King's already OP combat knife became even more powerful.

Checking his new perk, the stats were as shown:

* * *

[Pyromaniac I]

Description: You burnt a large amount of things and spent a long time beside the fire you created! Did you even manage to burn something alive in it? Does it matter? You are now a pyromaniac, whom loves starting fires, being near fires, and anything related to fires, really! Killing things with fires, too! Just more fire, fire, FIRE! BURN EVERYTHING!

Effect: Fires you create will last 20% longer and will burn 20% brighter, and will deal 20% more damage. Fires will also take 20% less materials to create. Fires created by you will also be more painful and fear-inducing when an enemy is burnt by it. Enemies that die by fires created by you will also give 20% more EXP, and will burst into flames, damaging other enemies. If you are nearby any form of fire, you deal 20% more damage and receive 20% less damage. You take 40% less fire damage. You take 60% less damage from your own fires. You regenerate HP, MP and ST at a 20% increased rate while near fires. If 10 enemies are killed with your fire, the effect [Firestorm] will be activated, and all your fires will deal 100% more damage. Effect is renewed with every 10 kills with your created fires.

Note: All forms of fire created by the character is considered 'your fire'. Even fires conjured by mana, or fires which were indirectly caused by you.

Requirements to upgrade perk:

0/10,000 fires started,

0/50,000 damage dealt by fire,

0/500 pain and fear dealt by fire on one mob,

0/5 fires started that lasted for 100 hours each,

0/1 Boss mobs killed with [Firestorm] perk active.

* * *

"Okay, this seems more psychopathic than the other one." King noted, after reading the description. Really? All he did was burn a lion to increase its pain so he could fulfill one of the conditions for his perk to level up, he didn't have severe pyromania!

Still, he may as well have, seeing as he'd probably be killing more mobs with fire very often. Don't look down on extra 20% EXP. Not to mention, it dealt more 'pain' and 'fear', supplementing the [Sadism] perk! In fact, both of them working in tandem was pretty good!

The [Firestorm] effect was also similar to his [Bloodlust] effect from his combat knife, as well. If 10 enemies died by a fire he created, his fire attacks would deal 100% more damage.

"I guess my next best weapon is a flamethrower." King jokingly said. As per usual, the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] changed from a SCAR to a flamethrower.

"Not again- you know what, why not." King sighed. He was going to utilize fire-based attacks, and he was going for incendiary ammo, but most animals would probably run away from a massive torrent of fire in the first place, so King just had to make sure he didn't get sneak-attacked. He didn't get extra EXP for killing enemies stealthily, but only extra damage. A flamethrower did damage over time, and it was an effective weapon for clearing out large swathes of mobs.

...Those weren't exactly the conditions needed for the current situation, as he was on a grassy flatland, not a dungeon of sorts where there were concentrated waves of enemies and the like. At least, there weren't any dungeons, yet. Currently, everyone only knew the place to farm was the grassy flatland just right outside the starting area. Any further, and the mobs were too high-leveled. At least, for the others. King was already there, and the flatland still had no end in sight.

"Maybe you can find dungeons by asking NPCs?" King suddenly had a thought. There was no way a game like this wouldn't have labyrinths or dungeons to farm mobs, and at the start, there were no dungeons yet. Maybe as the most of the game would be explored by players and also gained from asking NPCs, like when King found out how to make more [Mana Potions], King asked an NPC for it.

"Hopefully I can find a D-Class beast in one of the dungeons or something." King said to himself. Most materials could just be bought, in fact King could buy every material he needed to upgrade his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. Only problem was money. Stuff like [Mana Potions] and {Mana Crystals} could be easily made, so those weren't really much of a hassle. The usual material used to coat the sphere, in this case, {Mage's Gold}, could be found and mined. But King wasn't going to mine himself for the materials, no way in hell.

Problem was, all of the materials, every one of them, were expensive.

A single [D-Class Mana Crystal] would cost about 1 million in-game gold, due to the difficulty in procuring them. F-Class beasts had on average, 100 HP. E-Class beasts had, on average, 10,000 HP. The E-Class beasts King had been hunting were on the weaker side. Well, D-Class beasts? They had an average of 1,000,000 HP. King was more than far from it, and the lowest leveled D-Class beast was level 40, five levels higher than King's current level. King could barely scrape together 250 gold from selling all of his wolf-pelts, and you wanted him to gather a million?

10 [Mediocre Mana Potions] were pretty simple, for King at least, he didn't need to worry about collecting {E-Class Mana Crystals}, as he already killed a pride of lions, all of them whom were E-Class beasts. King currently had 18 {E-Class Mana Crystals}, enough to make 18 [Mediocre Mana Potions].

[D-Class Mana Crystal] aside, {Mage's Gold} was a bit trickier to get. Not only money was required, but a select few shops only ever get to sell {Mage's Gold}, due it its scarcity. Trying to collect 1 kilogram of it was akin to collecting a quarter of all of it on the markets. Well, not exactly, but most {Mages Gold} purchases were done in grams. The ingots were almost the same value as a rare work of art, or an incredible magic weapon fit for a general. At least, that's what the lore said about it.

So putting aside the {D-Class Mana Crystal} King would get personally because no way in hell was he paying 1 million gold for something he could get later in the game. The potions also weren't much of a hassle. He could already make them. The problem was getting {Mage's Gold}. One kilo would be close to 500,000 gold, or half a million gold. Getting the money wasn't enough of a hassle, finding it was also a pain.

First things first, King needed the money to afford it in the first place. Finding all the places to get them would be useless if he didn't have money.

 _"So how should I sell these lion pelts...?"_ King thought. If he sold it to a street vendor, he would not only probably get scammed, the street vendor might not even recognize its true value. After all, if going by in-game data, a lion would take at least 40 arrows to kill. 40 flimsy iron arrows, though. And they all needed to land square on the head.

"Maybe there's a place to sell high-end items..." King said out loud, before he turned to his left, and saw in big bold letters on a massive sign, "MERCHANT'S GUILD'.

"Talk about lucky."

King walked in, and it was a clean atmosphere, similar to the one when King walked into that chain alchemy store. _"What was it called, The Potion? Yeah, that's the one."_ King thought, remembering the place he learnt how to make potions.

"Good morning, how may the Merchant's Guild help you today?" As King walked towards the counter, he was greeted by a friendly receptionist. She was a young woman in her mid-twenties, and had green hair and yellow eyes. A strange combination, but hey, there's swords and magic and dragons (presumably) so something like this shouldn't be weird.

"I'd like to sell some pelts." King answered as per usual, short and straight to the point. He was worried long sentences might confuse the AI. Well, he thought, anyway. If every character was all equally human-like, then it would not only be highly taxing for the servers, but for the electricity required to run the damn thing.

"Alright, how many and what kind?" The receptionist asked.

"10 of them. Lion pelts. {Elite Beast}." King gave all the necessary information without a single excess word.

"Alright. Please fill in the form, and bring the items tomorrow." The receptionist noted. She probably didn't think all of it was currently on King, anyway. After all, only players had access to their inventories. NPCs probably only had stuff like space-time magic to do so. Players could do the same, but they had inventories so who cares.

"I'd like to deposit the pelts as soon as possible." King said.

"Of course. Please come again when you have the pelts ready." The receptionist waved, assuming King was about to leave to get the pelts.

"I already have them with me." King said.

"Eh? Where-" The receptionist asked, before being interrupted.

"Whoooey! A beauty!" A loud, gruff and rude voice sounded out.

" _Oh for fuck's sake, not this cliche scene again."_ King inwardly groaned. " _Please let it not be this girl, please let it not be this girl-"_ King hoped that their target was someone else, and not the receptionist in front of him, or else it was going to be a pain in the neck.

"Hey, blond asshole! Move out the way!" Alas, King's hopes were dashed. Turning around, a bald barbarian- at least King presumed he was a barbarian due to the large battleaxe on his back- was looking straight at him. King was blocking his view of the girl.

"Could you wait? I'm just about to finish my transaction-" King said, before the barbarian took out his axe, and pointed it at King. "You deaf!? I said move out the way, bastard!"

King sighed. Looks like there was no way out this one. " _Level 25, so not all bad, I guess."_ King checked the barbarian's level. He was around the same level as the tiger he first killed, so King wasn't too troubled. Only thing was this was either a cliche interaction that the developers put in for fun and would occur randomly, or it was a trigger for a quest or something. Thing was, quests would delay his grinding.

"You little-" When he saw King still hadn't moved out the way, the barbarian was pissed, and was approaching King, before another blond young man wearing full-plate armor with the symbol of the Merchant Guild's chest on his chest-plate appeared, blocking the way between King and the barbarian.

"Stop! No violence is allowed in the Merchant's Guild! Drawing your weapon already incurs a 500 gold fine, if you attack someone, you'll be banned from the Merchant's Guild for your entire lifetime!" The young man said.

"Get the fuck out of my way!" The barbarian seemingly didn't hear a word he said, and still strode with big steps towards King.

"Are you sure you're willing to go against the Merchant's Guild?" The young man's tone lowered, and the guards on the outside of the building had stepped into the building as well, drawing their swords.

"You... tch!" The barbarian finally saw sense, as he kept his weapon. The young man in front of him was the same as him, level 25, and the guards outside were level 30. There was no way he was winning this fight. Even an idiot such as he would be able to tell.

"You still need to pay a 500 gold fine!" The young man wasn't letting up, however.

"Why you- I'm leaving!" The man said, about to walk out. Clearly he didn't have to money to pay.

"Until you pay your fine, you're banned from trading at any branch of the Merchant's Guild!" The young man said right before the barbarian left the building, and the barbarian froze.

Looking back, he glared at King before going through the doors.

 _"Level 25... let's hope there's no one stronger than him that'll pop up later on."_ King thought.

"Sorry about earlier, sir. Everyone in the Merchant's Guild is protected by any and every possible method of harm." The young man apologized to King.

"Thanks." King thanked. Turning back. King procured the ten lion pelts from within his inventory, which appeared onto the floor.

"These are the pelts I wanted to sell." King said to the receptionist, whom was visibly shocked. He had just taken ten lion pelts from seemingly nowhere, after all.

"S-sir, you have an item bag?" The young man asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. I found it one day when I was exploring." King explained.

"Such good fortune..." "How come he gets one?" "Even those Silver-Ranked adventurers might not have one!" "Where'd he get it?" As he said so, a wave of commotion descended into the guild, as everyone was discussing King's 'item bag'.

Obviously, King knew what an item bag was. It was a magical pouch of any kind with the enchantment of being able to store things with space-time magic. They were rare items which could only be found in ancient ruins blah blah blah, and they were inferior to the inventories of players. Inventories could hold anything, as long as it was an item, no matter how large, and a stack of 100 each item. So an example would be if he had a 100 hay-bales, it would only take up a single slot in his inventory.

Item-bags, however, were bags with limited amount of space, like say... 4 or 5 meters cubed. And every single item took their own space, unlike inventories where a single slot was only filled when there was 100 of the item in it. Sure, if all you wanted was carrying weapons, sure, it was good. But say you went dungeon raiding, and they dropped hundreds to thousands of priceless materials. Inventories would be able to carry them all, whereas item bags were limited to the space it held.

The ONLY downside an inventory had was that it was limited to the slots left. King was currently level 35, so he had 40 slots for different items. More than enough, actually.

But, the game didn't have anything about inventories, and the game simply had this to say:

"Please simply say that your inventory is an item bag to the NPCs, the concept of an inventory does not apply to them."

Then again, if everyone had an inventory, there would be a problem already. Screw transport companies, any random person might be carrying 10,000 tons of gold and silver. But as players were players, that was pretty much normal in the gaming world. Some games allowed you to keep TANKS in a single inventory slot.

After selling the 10 lion pelts, King netted a total of 3000 gold coins. 300 gold per pelt, it was quite something. 250 gold was 250 wolves, a single lion was worth more than 250 wolves. Then again, wolves were easy to kill. Lions weren't.

King kept the other 4 pelts because... well, he just wanted to sell only ten. A nice, even number.

As he walked out of the city gates, King saw a familiar figure. It was the bald barbarian in the city. They were rather far out, and no one from the city gates could see them.

" _Seriously? If it weren't for the lack of a name hovering over his head, I'd think that this guy was an actual player."_ King inwardly sighed.

"Hey, asshole! Remember me!?" The bald barbarian called out gruffly.

"Oh, the person from the Merchant's Guild?" King called out.

"So you do remember me! Tch! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be banned from the Merchant's Guild! Hand over 500 gold now, and I'll consider sparing your life!" The barbarian said, pulling out his axe.

"You're speaking so casually about killing someone." King said.

"Hmph! I've done this to hundreds of people, I've killed at least 60 people, too!" The barbarian yelled out. "Furthermore, we're far away from the city! Your own life is your responsibility the second you step outside the gates!"

"So no one will bother if someone died outside here?" King asked once more.

"Of course! Even if a city guard saw me killing you, they probably wouldn't even care, as it isn't even their duty!" The barbarian yelled out once more.

"So no matter whomever is killed out here, no one would ever bother." King asked one last time for conformation.

"No one! Unless they're nobles, where their own personal force will come looking for them, and the King and the Royal Family, where the entire city guard will go looking for them, no one will care about some idiot blond dying here!" The barbarian said, before smiling. "You're not giving me 500 gold yet? Fine. Give me 500 gold now, and beg for mercy, and I just might consider taking an arm instead of your life."

"Hmm. Great, so that means you can help me with my experiment, then." King said.

"What-" The barbarian didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence until a sharp pain came from his left thigh. But when he looked again, say no more about the thigh, his entire left leg from below the ankle was gone.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His scream was so inhuman and unpleasant King wondered if this kind of sound could even be produced by humans. Well, from what King knew, the NPC voices were all made from voice synthesizers, so it was not even made by a human in the first place.

As he fell down due to missing support from his missing leg, he then noticed that his leg was over by his left, severed extremely cleanly.

"Huh, that's a clean cut." King noted. The katana he had materialized was incredibly sharp! The swords he used in the testing area didn't even come close! Then again, those were F-Class weapons. King was using a katana made from mana materialized from an E-Class weapon.

"But I don't want clean cuts. Jagged cuts raise pain points significantly more." King said, before de-materializing the katana. What came out next, was a bonesaw.

"Let's try just sawing an entire leg off." King said.

The barbarian that was still screaming, noticed that King was approaching, and attempted to back away, swinging his axe madly with both hands. "S-stay away!"

"Stop moving, will you?" King said, before materializing a gun, and shot at both his arms. "Oh, just to be sure..." King said, before shooting the other leg for good measure.

Ignoring the continued screams, King started to saw at the barbarian's foot, until he went halfway, then the barbarian passed out.

"Eh? But he was only at 200 pain... he already passed out? His fear is... ah. 1,000." King checked the two numbers floating on the unconscious barbarian's head.

"Usually the fear value is harder to raise than the pain value. Maybe cause this person is actually a coward and not an animal running on instinct?" King thought. Slowly, the fear dropped bit by bit.

"Must be because he's unconscious and can't feel fear." King said, before hitting the barbarian in his solar plexus, waking him instantly.

"K-keuk! W-what... was that a- IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!?" The barbarian looked around for a bit, before noticing King's face, and the severed leg on his left. King looked at the fear points, and it was rising steadily, already at 1,400. His pain was still at 200-ish, though.

"Anyway, hold still." King said.

" _So I know the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] can materialize weapons, and even some complicated things, like a crusher or a gun with working ammo. So I wonder if toxins or poisons can be made."_ King wondered, before a syringe was materialized on the tip of the sphere.

"Well, one way to find out." King said, jabbing the syringe into the man's leg.

"W-what? What'd you just- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-" The barbarian barely managed to get out before a scream was heard from him.

"So they still work... If only the things materialized can become physical. I can just sell these then." King noted. For now, the things he materialized were made of his own mana, meaning they would slowly dissipate over time. It only needed to be materialized once, but once outside of a certain range, the item he materialized would slowly dissipate over time, leaving no trace. That was why most of his kills didn't have any bullets stuck in them. They already dissipated by the time King got to collecting the carcass.

If it could turn into a physical object with real materials, that would be too good. But by then it wouldn't just be a 'materialization sphere' anymore. The materialization sphere just materialized something from mana into a state of mana which has the exact properties of the physical thing, like a kind of mana which was explosive, in the bullet casings, or a type of mana with toxic properties, like the bullet-ant venom he injected into the barbarian, but it was still just mana.

Turning mana into physical objects was more like transmutation. Previously, it was mana with the exact physical properties. But it was still mana. This time, it was the actual physical object.

"Well, its good enough, for now." King said, before continuing on experimenting with everything the [Materialization Sphere] was capable of. His unlucky experimentation subject, however... let's just say it was only the beginning for him.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

"Okay. So anything that is a solid, liquid, or gas can be materialized from mana, and retains all chemical properties as the actual solid. Stuff like fire, lightning, and actual light can't yet be materialized, but in the last case just making a flashlight should good enough." King said. As long as it was physical, the [Materialization Sphere] could probably materialize it. Anything else couldn't.

"Surprisingly, he managed to stay alive." King said, looking down on the barbarian. He was charred, frozen, had limbs cut off, tumorous growths, and if a normal person were to see it, they'd be horrified on all the afflictions on the body of the barbarian. It would even be more merciful to just end his suffering right then and there.

"I-I'm sorry. P-please let me go..." The barbarian pleaded weakly.

"I heard this over 300 times while I was testing stuff out. What makes you think I'm going to spare you?" King asked rhetorically. Not that he was cruel, but the barbarian came at him first. All he did was use him as an experiment instead of killing him outright. "Not to mention, letting you live or not, you'll die sooner or later with all those injuries." King pointed out.

" _Still, the physical effects are accurate to a tee. Gross, but still, I've seen worse on D*v**nt *rt."_ King thought. All the boils and scars and rashes and... organs were a little off-putting, King had to say. If he hadn't already witnessed worse when he was in an aftermath of a monster attack, King would've vomited already.

"Well, I'll be a good guy, and end your suffering already." King said, before de-materializing the picks which he created through the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], and brought out a flamethrower.

"N-no... please, anything, a-anything. I just want to live..." The barbarian still pleaded. Did this person really value life so much? King was actually not surprised he wasn't begging for death. After all, he was afflicted with all kinds of poisons and burns and frostbite. He would die no matter what, anyway.

"Why do you even want to live so badly? Even I feel like putting you out of your misery." King asked, puzzled. He really was planning to be a good guy and just killing him straight, after completing all his experimentation.

"J-just let me live-" The barbarian didn't even manage to finish when King stuck his black combat knife into the throat of the barbarian, killing him instantly.

"Well, that was a good experimentation. I now know its limits." King said, looking at the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] in his hands.

"Alright, time to farm!" King said, getting pumped up. He had came up with the perfect way to farm for EXP.

 **[4 hours later...]**

"Only level 42? Man, the level up requirements are getting more and more stringent..." King sighed. "Those were quite a lot of mobs, too. Meh, I guess there's a limit to what mostly level 20-30 mobs can do..." King said, looking ahead.

In front of him was a mostly burnt field, with the ashes of grass, carcasses of wolves, there was even some leopards and bears in there, too.

Basically, all King did was create a napalm bomb. When King materialized the first _one,_ it took out as much as 30,000 MP to make. But man, was it worth it.

Well, it wasn't exactly napalm, but it was a bomb, at least. Unlike napalm, this fire doesn't really stick, and also it burned at a much lower temperature.

All King needed was EXP. And of course, to be sure, King found out through the experiment, that most of his materialized items could take on whatever physical properties he wanted, as long as it was physically possible through any means. King still couldn't make a perpetual-motion machine, sadly.

However, what King could do was change how brightly and painful the fires created from the explosion would be. All it took was changing their chemical properties, and from the new upgrade, King's [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] could create it as long as King had a clear image of what it could do.

So, with that, King manipulated to explosion to be precisely an explosion with a 70 meter radius and would not burn outside the area to preserve the rest of the field without burning the entire grassy flatland, and in exchange for size of the explosion and duration of the fires burning... King traded it in for burning intensity.

"Now, these fires are supposedly able to last an entire 100 hours without need of re-kindling. I've heard of fires lasting thousands of years, but that's because they were tended to. Hopefully these actually last that long." King said, scratching his head. Now, this specific area, an entire...

uh...

 **Author: Gimme a sec.** ***checks calculator***

Ah yes. The entire area of 15,400 meters squared, or around 4 acres, was constantly burning. For about 100 hours, hopefully. The bomb was basically a napalm which had an absurdly longer burn time but much lower burn temperature, which exploded instantaneously. Well, due to logic and whatnot, although the temperature of the fire was mostly controlled, the center of the explosion, also known as where King put the bomb, was hottest, and the outer edges weren't as hot. On average, however, the fires were mostly the same temperature as a wood fire.

And the second he detonated it, it instantly leveled him up from level 36, to level 42. Okay, not instantly. Most enemies there were already level 20-30, so they were either max-leveled F-Class beasts, or actual E-Class beasts. So it took a while for them to die from the fires.

Now, King wasn't worried about the drops. What King wanted was more EXP. The more EXP, the more leveling up, the more stats, the greater firepower, and greater killing, therefore gaining more EXP. It was an endless cycle, where King was unconcerned by the drops.

Well, {Mana Crystals} aside. King felt a pang of pain in his heart when he detonated it, but quickly became overjoyed when he learnt that {Mana Crystals} were highly heat-resistant. Even F-Class {Mana Crystals} would have the melting point of aluminium. But napalm fire was hotter than that, which was why he toned down the temperature to the level of a wood fire.

So after the fire was done burning, King could spend his time collecting the {Mana Crystals} which would be perfectly intact. Everything else... not so much.

"Well, I honestly expected to be leveling up a bit faster. Guess not." King sighed. Three levels for 30,000 MP? Not that he was complaining, it was fast. But that kind of mana consumption was no joke. It was like three [E-Class Mana Potions]. Okay, fine. That was an amazing trade-off. But still, it was much, much lower than King's original efficiency. 10 MP was worth 2000 in damage from a single shot from a bullet. Then again, bullets were bullets. They were basically the most efficient killing machines in terms of price-to-production.

Before, he got limited to the damage range of the original [Materialization Sphere]. But now, King's [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] had a damage range of 10,000 damage at max. It's lowest damage rating would never change, and it would be one. Although, why damage from a bullet would be limited is questionable, it was to maintain balance. If every weapon did the same amount of damage because they 'were the same weapon and an edge is still an edge', and the skills are what counts, etc, etc, King would be surprised at the realism, and a little disappointed.

After all, the point of a fantasy game was FANTASY. Not realism. 'Fantasy' was literally in the name.

Getting back on track, now, the area where King exploded the bomb was now completely covered in fire, and there were no longer any living creatures anymore.

"Well, understandable. Would be pretty stupid if mobs just up and spawned at the place willy nilly, giving me free EXP for the whole period of 100 hours." King lamented at the realism. Couldn't a bit more 'fantasy' be included?

It made sense though. A wolf wouldn't be able to spawn in literal fire and last more than a second. Slimes, maybe. They had moisture or something. So obviously, the spawn rating was determined whether the mob spawned was able to survive for more than three seconds, more than ten seconds, more than a minute, and etc. If a mob would logically thrive at a specific spot, the spawn-rate of the mobs in that area would obviously be increased. For obvious reasons.

But currently, he situation in front of him was just pure fire. The only thing that would logically survive were mobs with a great fire attribute.

"Well, I guess I'll check again later. For now, I should regenerate my MP and then use another one of these on a higher-leveled area." King said, before deciding to move further ahead while he had the time. His [Firestorm] perk was worth quite a bit.

 **[1 hour later...]**

"I think..." King said, looking at the devastation ahead. "I went too far."

After some time making more explosives to gain more levels, King finally had the ability to enter those level 40-50 areas, which were all E-Class beasts. Occasionally there was the sight of a massive D-Class beast, but King would swiftly and sneakily evade them, with his stealth stats.

Originally, he'd just blow up a bomb and collect the EXP afterwards. However, instead of spending it on one bomb, an idea struck King, and he thought about combining a few bombs. King had found out he could combine weapons, like three materialized mana daggers could turn into a sword.

King did just that, but with the bombs.

It was risky business, as a single mishap could allow him to be spotted by every E-Class beast in the distance, and maybe if he was unlucky, a wandering D-Class beast.

After he materialized like, 40 or 50 of those explosives, King attempted to combine them, and for some reason turned the original explosives into larger, more dangerous explosives, and finally... into a small cube. Keep in mind, that small cube was the result of combining 40-50 explosives which leveled 15,400 meters squared worth of land, and all the mobs on it.

At the time, King shrugged and didn't care. It never failed him before. King just needed it to kill as much as it could. And it did. Too well. King apparently forgot to edit the characteristics of the explosive... and it had went from napalm... to nuclear.

Seriously. King swore he was at least a few kilometers away from the thing, and even then he could see the damn mushroom cloud and felt the vibrations.

"Shit. I hope there's no radiation..." King silently hoped. But he was bound to be disappointed. King produced a Geiger counter, and... well, let's just say King ran the fuck out of there faster than a car. Seriously. The physical abilities of a level 42-well, now level 52 was amazing. Still, King felt a small loss.

He had created a literal nuclear explosive... and only leveled up seven times. He leveled up three times before he had went into the level 40-50 area. King could go to those level 50-60 areas now, but still...

"A nuclear explosive for 7 levels... well, I can't complain. I got it immediately, after all." King sighed. He wasn't sure if he was being too greedy. He literally seized 7 levels for free... okay, not really. He gained seven levels by spending... a couple million MP, now that he thought about it. 30,000 MP per explosive, and he had made around 40 to 50 of them... He spent 1.2 to 1.5 million MP.

"Okay, now that I think about it, it was okay. I only spent 30 minutes to materialize all the explosives to gain 7 levels... it's a little faster, but that's from the extra EXP gain from [Sadism] and [Pyromaniac]." King thought. This speed wasn't all too bad, considering the fact that he was so high-leveled. At this pace, he'd be able to breach level 100 in the next two to three weeks, if the rhythm of grinding was same as all MMORPGs. All MMORPGs would have the same characteristics;

The first few levels are incredibly easy to farm. The middle levels are average and don't take too long to level up. The later ones are much harder, and the last 5 levels would take the longest to pass than the first thirty levels. After all, it only took him what... five whole hours to level up to level 52.

"What can I do for the next levels, though..." King was in a dilemma. He was already increasing his levels at a very fast pace, but that was because he had a really, really unfair edge. His [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. The first hour, he already got himself a hunting rifle. Next was an auto-sniper from the military, and now, he was on to napalm bombs, and finally, nuclear weapons.

…Everyone else had medieval weapons. It really was unfair. All other players were stuck on swords, spears, bows and arrows, meanwhile King was sitting back taking shots at mobs from afar using a gun, and now, he was using nuclear weapons.

"I like leveling up, but this is a bit too much." King said, crossing his arms. "Alright! I've decided!" King came to a decision.

"I'm not using any form of modern weaponry unless other players can access it too!" King decided. Being the highest-leveled player was fun. But it wasn't as fun when you got to the top using an edge that only you yourself had. It was considered your gain, but it didn't feel very satisfying. King got to the top, and beat the second highest-leveled player by a massive margin of nearly 30 levels. But they had spears. King used nuclear bombs.

So King decided he was using swords, spears, bows and arrows like everyone else. As long as it was a weapon everyone else can use, King was using it. But it didn't mean he wasn't going to not use his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. He'll still be using it to create weapons, unless some better weapons appear.

"For now... I need to get back to real life. It should be about time for dinner, now." King said, before logging out. He had already rushed into the city when he saw the readings of the Geiger counter, so he could safely log off. No need to fear logging in right in front of a horde of possibly mutated E-Class beasts and radiation poisoning.

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter...**

As King logged off and took off his helmet, his guess was right. It was currently 6 p.m, and about time for dinner. Usually, he'd go out for some takeout, but he was a little lazy today. He already bought some groceries earlier- by groceries, King meant a replenishment of his Instant-ramen stock. Well, that and some fruits. No matter how unhealthily King lived, every person needed a balanced diet.

"Well, time to cook." King said, stretching, and about to take out his tea-pan to cook some instant ramen, before he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey, King! You there?" Saitama's voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Oh, yeah. Coming." King then walked to the door, opening it to see Saitama, wearing casual clothes and a plastic bag in hand.

"Want some bananas?" Saitama offered.

"Sure." King accepted it. "So what'd you come here for?"

"Well... you see... this is a little embarrassing, but can I ask for a loan?" Saitama asked.

"A loan? What for?" King asked.

"I want to try out that new VR-helmet thingy that everyone's so crazy about, but I don't have enough to actually buy the thing. Can I just borrow like, 200,000 yen? I'll pay you back as soon as I can." Saitama answered.

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	3. Chapter 3: Dungeon Diving

**Chapter 3: Dungeon Diving**

* * *

As King logged off and took off his helmet, his guess was right. It was currently 6 p.m, and about time for dinner. Usually, he'd go out for some takeout, but he was a little lazy today. He already bought some groceries earlier- by groceries, King meant a replenishment of his Instant-ramen stock. Well, that and some fruits. No matter how unhealthily King lived, every person needed a balanced diet.

"Well, time to cook." King said, stretching, and about to take out his tea-pan to cook some instant ramen, before he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey, King! You there?" Saitama's voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Oh, yeah. Coming." King then walked to the door, opening it to see Saitama, wearing casual clothes and a plastic bag in hand.

"Want some bananas?" Saitama offered.

"Sure." King accepted it. "So what'd you come here for?"

"Well... you see... this is a little embarrassing, but can I ask for a loan?" Saitama asked.

"A loan? What for?" King asked.

"I want to try out that new VR-helmet thingy that everyone's so crazy about, but I don't have enough to actually buy the thing. Can I just borrow like, 200,000 yen? I'll pay you back as soon as I can." Saitama answered.

"Oh, that's it? Sure. I don't mind." King said.

"Alright! You're a lifesaver! Thanks, man. I didn't want to go looking for Genos for the money." Saitama sighed in relief.

"But not right now. I don't have the cash on hand." King said. Checking his wallet, he only had 80,000 yen left after getting groceries and buying the Orbis Helmet for himself.

"Ah, that's okay. I wanna know, you've played the game before, right?" Saitama asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"How's the game like?"

"Oh, it's really realistic, but logging in is a weird feeling. There's also..." King then proceeded to explain all the game's functions, skills, and just everything in general.

"Man, that sounds amazing. Now I want it more than before." Saitama said, envious that King already got his own Orbis-helmet.

"Well, I'll go withdraw some cash. Pay me whenever, just as long as you actually pay." King said, before leaving the house.

 **[1 hour later...]**

"I'm back. Here's the 200,000 yen you asked for." King said, handing Saitama the cash.

"Sweet! I'll go buy it now!" Saitama said, pumped up, knowing he was going to finally enjoy that cool helmet.

"Just asking, do you have a relatively good internet connection?" King asked.

"Huh? Well, I have internet, but I'm not very sure about its speed." Saitama said. "On bad days, it takes a minute to load a few pages. If I'm lucky, it only takes a second or two."

King face-palmed.

"Why, what's wrong?" Saitama asked, a sinking feeling creeping up to him. With King's reaction, there was no way everything was normal.

"Man, I think you need to upgrade your internet." This beast of a game was not only humongous in terms of processing-power required to run it, its internet consumption was incredibly taxing, as well. It needed at least 200 Mbps to run smoothly. King knew, because they literally said so right before you logged in.

"A-are you serious? My internet is already crazy expensive. Hero work doesn't pay very well, I can't afford all that!" Saitama said, gripping his head in frustration.

King sighed. He'd never know the pain of getting low wages for hero work... considering his S-Class hero status was literally hoisted on him without his consideration. Not to mention, he had no fighting prowess at all. At least, not back then.

"Tell you what. I saw this coming already. Here's another 300,000 yen. You can keep it running smoothly for a long time. Don't worry. S-Class hero pay is way more than you'd think." King said, handing Saitama another 300,000 yen.

"B-but-" Saitama wanted to say something, but King interrupted. "The S-Class heroes are paid extremely well. Trust me. I get paid this DAILY." King explained. Saitama no longer felt guilty from taking that much money from King, seeing as it was pretty much nothing to him. His face went from troubled to blank in less than 3 seconds flat.

"Yep. Tell you what, you can even keep it if you'd like. I don't really have that much need for so much money, anyway." King said, noticing the glint in Saitama's eyes.

"Yeah! I'm getting a cool VR-helmet!" Saitama said, holding the money he received up like he just won it in a competition or something.

"Anything else?" King asked.

"Oh, yeah. Since you're giving me this much money, why not we go get takeout together? My treat. The least I can do for you, after you're giving me so much." Saitama invited. "Come on, I know a good place for mozuku."

 **[30 minutes later...]**

"That was good." King said, patting his belly. Saitama was right. They had the best mozuku he ever tasted. They had some good oden, too.

"Well, time to go to sleep... not." King said. The helmet, the really, really good part, was that it could play while one was asleep. In fact, one was technically asleep while playing. At least, one's body was sleeping. One's mind wasn't.

King would only be mentally exhausted while his brain wasn't. But it didn't matter. For now, he should try his best to get stronger, so he would be able to survive a monster attacking him. Now, he was level 52, which meant he was strong enough to kill those D-Class mobs, which were equivalent to demon-level threats. Some were as strong as Dragon-level threats, but only the strongest of D-Class mobs. C-Class mobs, even the weakest were stronger than the average Dragon-level threat, and some of the top ones would be like pseudo-God level threats.

From in-game knowledge, F-Class beasts were leveled 1-20, E-Class beasts were leveled 21-40, D-Class beasts were leveled 41-60, and so on. B-Class beasts were level 81-90, A-Class beasts were 91-95, and the final, S-Class beasts were level 96-100. Those few levels didn't seem like much, but keep in mind, those last few levels were further apart than the difference of level 1 and 90.

King's target was reaching level 100. If he still grew stronger in real life following the game, then if he could take down an S-Class beast, he would be able to take down God-level threats no problem. And THAT was what he aimed for. Then, he would never, ever be troubled by the appearance of monsters ruining his daily life.

But how long would this effect last? King didn't know. Is the effect even real? King didn't know. Was the experience up until now even _real?_ Again, King didn't know.

But, hey. Even if it wasn't, the game was still fun. It would simply mean King's hopes were just a little too much.

Still, if anything, what he should do now was increase his strength. And to increase his strength, he would just need to level up in the game... for some reason.

Either way, King logged back in, and the moment he logged in, the first thing he heard... was about a massive fire breaking out in the flatland.

"Did you hear? Just a few hours earlier, right before dawn, a massive explosion occurred in the grassy plains just outside the city!" An NPC said.

"I heard, I heard! They also say it was a Fire Spirit that descended onto the flatland for a short while!" Another NPC chimed in.

"Are you serious? A Fire Spirit is one of the few great protective spirits of the Elf Tribe! Why would they descend here?" One NPC continued.

"Yeah! Fire Spirits are on par with {Cataclysmic-Beasts}, and would often protect their tribes from such harm!"

The conversation continued, and it was pretty much the talk of the entire city.

" _Yep... I'm not using those weapons unless I really need to."_ King mentally reminded himself of what he decided earlier. The nuclear blast was comparable to a 'Fire Spirit', a {Cataclysmic Beast}, might he add, descending onto the ground.

Ignoring the busy chatter in the city, King went to the very beginning of the flatland, in order to practice using regular weapons. By that, King meant the medieval weapons everyone else was using. He knew how to use daggers, but those were only for causing 'pain' and 'fear' onto a mob.

Now, he was starting over from the top. What he chose was a spear. Not only was its damage the highest, but its range was the greatest among melee weapons, too. The only reason King wanted something like this was because... well, he needed a weapon. Not like he could just bring a auto-sniper again. No, he wasn't doing that. Unless a gun-type weapon was introduced for players to use. THEN he could safely take out a gun. That or a flamethrower.

For now, King was just going to use a spear made from his own mana. And a little something to speed things up, all King did was add a heating coil in the spear so that it would do some fire damage. It wasn't exactly fire per-se, but it counted. King checked.

Currently, King was just getting used to handling a spear. He had absolutely no idea how to use one, after all. A sword was easy. Just swing it. A spear was just jabbing. But in terms of mastering it, a spear was easier to use.

After practicing a bit, King went to the further parts of the flatland, and attempted to hunt the other mobs. The first time didn't go so well. If it wasn't for his ridiculously high stats, King would've died under the attacks of the wolf pack. After a while, King started to get the hang of it. It was true, as well. A spear was easier to use than a sword. But the main reason for that was because the spear had a limited move-set. A sword could be swung in all directions.

"Everything has its strengths and weaknesses, huh..." King said, looking at the spear. It was a bit too long for his tastes, and couldn't be used to defend oneself against many attacks at once. If say, a group of wolves came charging over, King would only be able to kill one or two. The rest would get too close for the spear to work.

"Know what, I'll just go to the basics. A sword and shield." King said, before changing his spear into a sword and shield. literally anyone can use a sword and shield. Just remember to use a shield for defending, and a sword for attacking. That was pretty much it.

"Maybe I should get some karate lessons. Then I won't need to use weapons." King jokingly said. And then it clicked. It made sense, actually. What better weapons than the ones you were most proficient with? Those weapons were your hands. They were there since birth, and it barely took one anything to use it. It was literally a part of your body.

There were weapon masters that were so proficient with their weapons that they became a part of their body. Why not just use the weapon that already IS a part of your body?

After all, that's pretty much what Silver Fang, an S-Class hero like himself used. The one before him was Atomic Samurai, using a katana. King couldn't really use what the heroes before Silver Fang used. Tatsumaki used ESP, something King didn't have. Blast... King didn't even know who he was. Come to think of it, no one really did. All they knew was that he is necessary to stop a God-level threat. Well, that or Saitama, the strongest guy King knew. And Saitama used his fists, too.

"I guess I'll practice using my hands for combat, then." King decided. What could go wrong? He was a level 52 at a level 1-10 zone, so he was pretty much safe. The only thing he'd try out would be using his hands.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

King learnt... that using his fists were easy. In fact, it was really easy to use his fists. That much was certain. What sucked was the damage. His unarmed damage was pretty much just the exact value of his STR stat, so his fists dealt around 5,200 damage. Yes. His stats increased from the usual 1 per level, to 10 per level, and now he had 100 of his stats at every level. But still, after some time, he did get a new passive skill, which was [Unarmed Mastery (Tier II: {5,300/10,000})

Despite the damage value, the increment of damage in his 'mastery' skills depended on the health shaved away from mobs. He killed a wolf with 5,200 damage, yet only 500 damage, from the wolf's maximum HP was counted. After finding 10 wolves, he only gained that much for his [Unarmed Mastery (Tier II)].

Currently, King's stats were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 52

Title: None

HP: 520,000/520,000

MP: 520,000/520,000

ST: 520,000/520,000

STR: 5,200

VIT: 5,200

INT: 5,200

DEX: 5,200

LCK: 5,200

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement II], [Vital Strikes], [Stunning Blow]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning IV], [Hunter's Grace IV], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000}) ], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {14,344/1,000,000}) ], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier II: {5,300/10,000}) ]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

EXP: 51,450,786/52,000,000

* * *

"I think I know how levels work now." King said to himself. The first twenty levels were linear. After that, the ten levels after that increase one's stats by an extra digit, like how at level 30, King got 30,000 HP instead of 3,000, and at level 50, instead of 50,000 HP, King had 500,000 HP. At level 70, King should have 7,000,000 HP. At level 90, King should get 90,000,000 HP. After that, King wasn't sure. That was A-Class Beast territory. Those were on par with God-level threats in real life. Level 96 and above would be {Supreme Beast} class. And going by logic, should be galactic-level power, at the very least.

Well, King was aiming for level 100. If not, at least level 95. That was enough to kill a God-level threat. Anything stronger... well, Saitama should be able to handle it. If not, well. They were screwed. Big time.

"Anyway, I should be getting stronger now." King said, before slowly advancing into further, higher-leveled territories, while bit-by-bit improving his [Unarmed Mastery]. King wanted it to be at least Tier III or IV. If they got too strong, King would just have to use a bow.

For now, King stuck with grinding as much as possible, while leveling up his [Unarmed Mastery] skill.

 **[2 hours later...]**

"Okay, the grinding is getting boring. Not to mention, I'm not getting that much stronger." King said, checking his progress. He had only leveled up thrice, and was now level 55.

"I guess I should go do some questing... Quests give EXP, too. Maybe I can even fight a Boss mob." King hoped. Almost all of his perks required something to be done to a Boss mob.

Boss mobs were characterized as following in ascending order of strength.

Copper-Ranked Boss, Iron-Ranked Boss, Bronze-Ranked Boss, Silver-Ranked Boss, Gold-Ranked Boss, Platinum-Ranked Boss, Diamond-Ranked Boss, Obsidian-Ranked Boss, and finally, a Supreme Boss.

"Well, I guess I'll go look for the Adventurer's Guild. Maybe they'll have quests that are held in dungeons." King said to himself. Speaking of which, adventurers were also ranked according to the boss ratings. Copper-Ranked Adventurers were usually level 1-10, Iron-Ranked Adventurers were level 11-20, Bronze-Ranked Adventurers were level 21-30, and so on. However, after Obsidian Rank was the legendary Penultimate Rank, second to only the Guild-Master of the Adventurer's Guild in power and prestige.

It barely took King a few minutes to find the Adventurer's Guild. It was right in front of the spawn.

Going in, it fit the term 'Adventurer's Guild' to a tee. Literally everything of the building was exactly as someplace called 'Adventurer's Guild' would look like.

Rowdy, smells of beer, etc.

Either way, King registered, and he got a new title, which was [Copper-Ranked Adventurer]. On its own, it gave an extra 10% EXP gain whenever you were on undiscovered lands, or in Dungeons. Now, King understood how the other players, with medieval weapons, were catching up to King, while he was using nuclear weapons.

" _I don't feel as bad now, but I'm still not continuing with modern weapons."_ King thought. " _Well, unless there is a Boss mob."_

Almost all of his perks were about to be fully upgraded to the next tier, but only a tiny problem stood in its way.

He had to do some things to a Boss mob. Any Boss mob, really.

And even after so much grinding, he had not once encountered a Boss mob.

Hopefully, there was a quest which required him to go dungeon-diving. Dungeons always had bosses, if one went in deep enough.

Besides the title, he got a new item, which was a [Copper-Ranked Adventurer's Badge]. It did nothing, obviously. What it did do was work as an entry ticket to any dungeon. Without this, one wouldn't be able to enter city dungeons, since they would be guarded by their respective cities's guards. Speaking of which, every player started at the same city, but there were other NPC cities which would only work when one discovered them. Once they were discovered, the person whom discovered it would get an EXP reward, and also a 100% bonus EXP gain for the next 48 real-time hours. After a city was discovered, newer players can then choose whichever city they wanted to start off at.

But apart from that, if someone were to discover a previously undiscovered dungeon in the wilds, one could hire NPCs to guard them, and the dungeon would be able to serve as a hub for other players to grind, and other NPCs would automatically begin to set up shop, too. Difference was, the player that discovered it and hired NPCs to guard them could set a fee if he wanted to.

Dungeons were basically sources of income for players if they found them. But city dungeons were free and were in charge of every city's respective Adventurer's Guild branches.

The main adventurer's guild was situated in a high-level city, a level 90 city, which was the legendary city of Orbis. Yes, the developers really wanted to promote their brand, the highest-tiered city was named after the company.

Looking through the quest boards, King couldn't find any to do with dungeons, but soon found one.

* * *

Quest: Thin out monsters in City Dungeon.

Progress: 0/100 monsters killed from the City Dungeon.

* * *

" _There was a dungeon in the city the whole time? Maybe the other players were already grinding there..."_ King thought. Now, he felt even less guilty about using modern weapons to level up. The other players already had a 20% EXP boost from a [Copper-Ranked Adventurer] title, while they could grind in the City Dungeon.

Following directions given by the NPCs, King arrived at a large hill, which was fenced off from the rest of the city. As per usual, dungeons were underground and the hill was just the starting area which was populated by miners and other adventurers, and some NPC shopkeepers that set up shop in the dungeon.

Walking in, the first floor was no more a dungeon than it was a bustling sector of trade and commerce. Adventurers would frequently come back up just to sell off excess loot, so shopkeepers would just set up shop on the first floor of the dungeon, for both convenience to the adventurers and merchants.

The stalls King passed by sold food, armor, weapons, repairing services, etc. Some adventurers would even not go back home for long periods of time because of the convenience in the dungeon's first floor. Which was why there was even an inn underground.

As logic would dictate, this was the so called 'safe-area' of the dungeon, and no monsters ever spawned up here. Monsters that wandered out here were immediately killed by the guards, and the chances of something like that happening in the first place would be pretty slim, with all the adventurers inside, killing off all the mobs.

As shown in the instructions that popped in front of King when he first registered as an adventurer, one would simply need to show one of the NPCs with a yellow glowing exclamation mark above them the quest paper, and King would be able to proceed.

After getting directions again, King finally found the mouth of the entrance to the rest of the dungeon. The two guards on the entrance both had yellow glowing exclamation marks above them.

"Halt! Please show your Quest Flier or [Adventurer Badge] to us before you head in. If not, please leave the area. Civilians aren't allowed into the dungeon, only adventurers can freely enter and leave the dungeons." One of the guards said, when they saw King approaching.

Flashing his badge briefly, King walked past the guards as he entered the dungeon.

"He's rude. He didn't even greet us!" One of the guards said.

"Ah, don't mind him. Our job is just to regulate the entry of the dungeon and ensure no civilians enter. He's an adventurer, so who cares." The other, older guard said. "Besides, the job of an adventurer isn't greeting the guards. It's clearing out the mobs in the dungeon and selling the products to keep the economy of the empire stable."

"But he's just a Copper-Ranked Adventurer! Even those Iron-Ranked adventurers wouldn't be that disrespectful! Some rude Bronze-Ranked adventurers, I understand. But a Copper-Ranked Adventurer! If I weren't on duty now, I'd show him why us guards are here!" The younger guard said.

"Now, now. We're guards, not ruffians. " The older guard said.

"I guess you're right. Still! He should at least give us some respect! He treated us like air!" The younger guard complained.

"Hehehe, if you think that's rude, you've probably never seen some of the hot-blooded newbies. They'd up and act like they were the prophesized hero or something, only to get grievously wounded in the dungeon. At least he didn't insult us like he was beneath us." The older guard said.

"Heeeeh~" The younger guard sighed.

"Also, correct me if I'm wrong, did he enter without any weapons? At least, I didn't see him bring any." The older guard asked.

"Huh, you're right. I didn't see anything, not even a dagger at his waist. I automatically assumed he was a commoner at first sight, didn't think he was actually an adventurer." The younger guard realized King walked in without any weapons.

"That's dangerous! Even if he were an adventurer, he shouldn't be that reckless, no?" The older guard said.

"Well, that's true... maybe he's a fist-fighter, or a magic-user?" The younger guard said.

"That can't be! Those who know how to use magic without staves or wands are at least Bronze-Ranked adventurers, and martial artists would always carry a dagger just in case! Only madmen would walk into the dungeon unarmed!" The older guard said.

"If he dies, then he dies. Not like us guardsmen can do anything about that!" The younger guard said angrily.

"Well, I suppose its a sad thing." The older guard sighed. He didn't understand why King walked in without a weapon.

"Ah, our shift's over." The younger guard said, looking at two approaching guards.

Inside the dungeon, the mobs were pitifully low-leveled. The lowest was a slime at level 1, and the highest was a goblin, at level 5. Well, he was only in the dungeon for what, a few minutes? Not to mention, he was just on the second floor. Going down, the average mob of a floor was 10 levels higher than the mobs in the floor above it.

For a level 55 like him, this was nothing. Still, he achieved it by exploiting bonus EXP gain from inflicting pain and fire upon the mobs, and also nuclear weapons. It wasn't really anything much to be proud of... okay. It was still something. Even the current highest-leveled player aside from King was level 16. The only reason King knew was because there was a scoreboard which revealed the highest-leveled player on the scoreboard. To get on the scoreboard, one simply needed to allow for it to be displayed. All one needed to do was tick a checkbox.

King didn't, because he didn't want to cause such a ruckus, after all. Imagine if one played the game, and then suddenly out of nowhere, the highest-leveled player was nearly 40 levels ahead of the second highest-leveled player. Many would obviously try to call out 'hacks', or 'cheating', because that would be what came to mind, first.

Even when they discovered that it was legit, it was sure to raise a commotion, in-game and in real life. King already had enough commotion, and all he wanted was to grind in peace. He just wanted to get stronger, that was all! He didn't want to end up dying by some wolf-level threat that got lucky, after all. In fact, he wouldn't want to die to anything, really.

"Still, I guess a dungeon is still a dungeon. The spawn-rate is much higher than on the flatland." King noted. While he was on the flatland, he never saw mobs spawning before. They were always just... there. In dungeons, however, they were said to have been created through the mana in the dungeon, so unlike creatures out from the flatland, these creatures were made of mana and when they died, their bodies would be absorbed through the dungeon.

The only things which would be left would be the {Mana Crystals} and other items from the mob. In some cases, it might even drop equipment. Lore-wise, it was explained that the equipment was from fallen adventurers who died in the dungeon and their equipment was absorbed by the dungeon. Even the illogical drops of items from mobs was explained, that was the first VRMMORPG in the world for you. Well, except mobs outside of dungeons.

Those mobs would be left there, and the harvesting of the materials were all manual, too. King experienced that the hard way. Everyone else, after level 10, probably discovered the dungeon and became adventurers already. King was the only one still farming like an idiot in the flatland.

"Well, I guess this makes perfect time to practice using my hands, then." King said. When he practiced trying to use his hands as weapons in the flatland, the only problem was the apparent lack of mobs to try it on. Now that he was here, however...

"Who needs to go for self-defense lessons when you can just invent your own self-defense style!" King joked, punching the head off of a goblin.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

King had abandoned the thought of using flashy styles to kill mobs, and went from trying to punch them, to flashily looking like an idiot, to just killing them in the most efficient way possible. First, he tried to just punch them. As his strength was pretty high form his ludicrously high stats, King had no problems there. But when it came to the higher-leveled mobs, at level 30 or so, it just didn't cut it anymore. Those mobs had around tens of thousands of HP, and King's fist dealt around 5,500 damage from his STR stat. Adding on the bonus damage from his skills, King dealt around 7,700 damage.

Still, that was a lot of damage per punch. But as he got to those level 40 mobs, it took quite a few hits, and King took quite a bit of damage, too. Suffice to say, he ran away- _ahem,_ made a tactical retreat from the level 40-50 area.

That was when King decided he wanted to try out using those martial-arts styles or something he saw on television. Suffice to say, all he did was look like an idiot. And no, it did not increase his damage whatsoever. So afterwards, King concluded that whatever martial arts were, he had no idea about them. So as per usual, King just did what he could do. Kill them with extreme prejudice. By that, mercilessly.

Ripping them apart limb from limb, decapitating them with pure brute strength, destroying their joints and all that to stop them from moving, well, as stated earlier, King just tried to kill them the fastest way possible. King didn't even try stacking up 'pain' and 'fear' values before he killed them. They weren't worth much EXP anyway.

Trying to level up from level 55 by killing level 30-40 mobs was pretty much a joke. So King was just experimenting with all the ways he could kill things, and the fastest way he could do so. It was a game, so those ridiculous feats of 'tearing people apart limb from limb' was actually feasible here. And after a while, King got the gist of it.

Aim for vital points. Strike first. Attack the head to confuse them, all that kind of stuff. Even a total amateur to fighting, like King, could grasp it after a long time of mindless executions. Granted, it was only 30 minutes, but it was 30 minutes of non-stop slaughter.

And because of that, he got many new skills, too.

The first time he hit a mob on the head, it instantly killed the mob due to the level difference. Despite that, he still got a new active skill, which was [Stunning Blow]. As the name suggests, when activated, the next few hits would stun the mobs for a while, leaving them at King's mercy... for all of 5 seconds. The higher-leveled the mob, the shorter the duration. When King tested its effects on a really low-leveled mob, a level 20 orc, it basically put it into a coma.

Because of that, King got a new passive skill. [Knockout Blow]. A 1 in 100 chance, the next hit would knock out the mob, or at least stun it for a very long duration. It would occur more frequently if King struck the head, though. Obviously. Concussions, no matter what species- except slimes, would knock the thing out, or at least stun it.

[Bloody Battler] was a passive skill that increased King's damage by increments of 1% every 10 seconds whenever he was fighting something. After a minute, it'd increase by 10% every minute. It would cap at 100% after 10 full minutes of fighting non-stop, and when it capped at 100%,King would gain a status effect, which was [Asura]. It made it that all of King's attacks would deal 50% more damage. As one would guess, King got this skill 15 minutes in after he started killing everything non-stop. The skill's effect would reset if one wasn't fighting for a full minute.

[Killing Spree] was a skill which activated whenever King killed over 10 mobs under 10 seconds, and its effect was an extra 1% agility and speed every mob killed under 10 seconds, and after killing another 10 mobs under a minute, would increase his agility by 10%, increasing by 10% every 10 mobs killed. One could not stop killing 10 mobs every minute or else the effect would reset. Whenever it caps at 100%, King would gain a status effect, which was [Rampage]. All it would do was increase King's damage by 50%.

If both [Killing Spree] and [Bloody Battler] were utilized at the same time, then after 10 minutes, adding 100% bonus damage from the passive skill [Bloody Battler], and a 50% damage increase from the status effect [Asura] and [Rampage], King would deal an extra 200% damage, meaning he would deal a total of 300% damage, or three times normal damage. Say, if he dealt 10,000 damage, he would deal 30,000 damage after 10 minutes of fighting. If he were to add on his [Bloodlust] effect from his combat knife, he'd deal 4 times the normal damage! Landing a head-blow would deal another 6x damage, meaning he'd do a total of 24x normal damage! If he could do that, it would be completely insane.

Currently, with his set-up of skills, he was suited to long fights with many enemies. The more he killed and the longer he fought, the higher his damage.

Aside from his skills, King found out that the damage range of his punches weren't exactly taken from his strength stat. The force in each punch also determined the damage dealt. A very light punch would probably only deal 55 damage. A light punch would deal 550 damage, and a normal punch would do 5,500. The more force going into the punch, the higher the damage. King remembered, because he once dealt over 27,500 damage to a mob when he tried that 'one-inch-punch' thing he read from somewhere. Using all his bodily strength into a single punch, King dealt that much damage to a mob just by trying. And even then he wasn't sure if he did it right. All King remembered was 'use your whole body into the punch'.

And after 30 minutes, King went from completely clueless about fist-fighting... to a complete novice. Hey, he only practiced for 30 minutes. If he managed to master it that fast, all the martial artists in the world could go commit suicide with a block of tofu! (Wuxia readers get it)

Still, at least he knew the basics. Stay on your feet and constantly move... that King already knew. FPS games taught him that. The moment one stopped moving, one would either get sniped, or get killed by another person. That, and everything else.

"Maybe I should get some lessons from Saitama." King joked. Knowing him, Saitama would probably respond with 'punch it until it's dead'.

"Well, as I expected, using my hands are seriously easy. If I hit as hard as I can, it even surpasses the damage range of the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]!" King said. If he tried that 'One-Inch Punch' thing, by using all his muscles at once, King would be able to deal 27,500 damage, far more than the 10,000 maximum damage value of the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]!

Well, then again, King knew better than to trust the damage range of a weapon. It was just the general capability of the weapon. Like how a sword dealt 8-12 damage, but if one was level 50 or higher, one could deal thousands to tens of thousands of damage if one swung it with their maximum strength. Granted, the sword would shatter from the tremendous force exerted on it, but it proved damage ranges were just general. One could deal 1,000,000 damage from a 10 damage sword, if one wanted to. Damage was calculated by the damage range of the weapon and one's STR, VIT, INT, DEX, and LCK stats.

Speaking of which, King completely forgot, but he could already upgrade his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] to the next tier if he wanted. He already had more than enough [Mediocre Mana Potions], and some {D-Class Mana Crystals] were already obtained. He killed some weak {Disastrous Beasts} in the dungeon already. He already had a few of those on hand, and a couple dozen {E-Class Mana Crystal}, so making more [Mediocre Mana Potions] was a cinch.

Problem was... {Mage's Gold}. If he could, he'd just sell some {D-Class Mana Crystals} to get the money, but the problem was finding it in the first place. It wasn't a problem of money. It was a problem of finding the damn thing in the first place. Oh well, King's best bet was going to the Merchant's Guild again to sell off one of his {D-Class Mana Crystal} to get {Mage's Gold}.

If he had to sell at a loss, so be it. He wasn't really a patient man when it came to stuff like this. Even if a single {D-Class Mana Crystal} was exchanged for a kilogram of {Mage's Gold}, it would be a net loss, because a single kilogram of {Mage's Gold}, following market price, was only 500,000 gold. A single {D-Class Mana Crystal}, even from the weakest of {Disastrous Beasts}, was worth a million gold. But the price of a {D-Class Mana Crystal} wasn't unfounded.

The weakest {Disastrous Beast} still had a minimum of 100,000 HP, and the ones he encountered had around 250,000 to 500,000 HP. And these were the weakest {Disastrous Beasts}. The ordinary ones had around a million HP. Not only was finding one beast hard enough, it was even harder to find people that were able to kill it. Only Silver Ranked Adventurers and above were capable of taking them down. Although for King, killing the weakest ones were pretty easy.

When King encountered his first {Disastrous Beast}, King wasn't even sure if it was a {Disastrous Beast}. It had the tag above its head, but it was rather weak, at 300,000 HP. King, at the time, already had 550,000 HP. By utilizing his superior strength, King overpowered the mob, and beat it black and blue. As the mob was level 40, King didn't care for the EXP it gave.

Speaking of which, before he encountered that specific {Disastrous Beast}, he probably killed a few of his own already, with that nuclear explosion just a couple hours ago.

King attempted to kill a regular {Disastrous Beast} which was near his level, at level 50 earlier. It had 1 million HP, as per the average HP of a {Disastrous Beast}. It was tough, as the strongest hit King ever dished out was 50,000 damage, and the HP of the mob was 1,000,000. Needless to say, it took quite more than just a few punches and kicks here and there, but he killed it in the end.

For now, King would be able to kill mobs with his fists. Don't get him wrong, he could. Just saying, once he upgraded his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] to the next tier, and could dish out millions of damage, he was going to use it.

Also, King learnt a very basic thing, too. Kicks dealt more damage. By using as much strength as he could, he was able to deal 55,000 damage at his highest. But then King remembered something he learnt in Physical Education class. The legs were 3 times stronger than the arms.

True enough, a standard punch was 5,500 damage. A kick dealt around 16,500 damage. If King wanted to deal damage, kicks were the way. A normal kick already surpassed the current maximum damage value of the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. And that was even before he added in the 40% bonus damage from his [Unarmed Mastery (Tier IV)]. He was using his fists and kicks so much that it even surpassed the damage he dealt from guns and the nuclear blast earlier.

And now, his most damaging weapon in his arsenal wasn't a weapon. It was his fists. Well, that was bound to change once he upgraded his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. If going by the pattern, the next tier's damage range would be 1-1,000,000 damage.

King was pretty sure by the time he upgraded it to the next tier, his fists and/or kicks won't be doing that much damage any time soon.

Hopefully, all he would need to do was just trade in one {D-Class Mana Crystal} for the {Mage's Gold} he needed. The market value of a single {D-Class Mana Crystal} was already twice the value of a kilogram of {Mage's Gold}!

Still, if he could get it, he could get it. Honestly, he didn't care. For now, he should be looking for a method to get a {C-Class Mana Crystal}. {Cataclysmic Beasts} were ranged from level 61 to 80, so if he were to go forward with it, there was pretty much no way he would be able to kill it, much less survive in its presence.

{Disastrous Beasts}, in general, would have 1,000,000 HP on average. {Cataclysmic Beasts} would have, on average, 100,000,000 HP. Even the weakest of them would have a minimum of 10,000,000 HP. So until King got his HP up to a couple million as well, he'd have to pass on {Cataclysmic Beast} hunting. If he could kill {Cataclysmic Beasts}, it meant he could kill Dragon-level threats.

But until then, he'd best avoid any of them. Still, he couldn't believe it. It barely took him a day to get to this level of strength, and at this rate, he'd be killing {Black Beasts} at the end of the week. He'd not need to fear anything then! Well, except {Apocalyptic Beasts} and {Supreme Beasts}.

Still, because of the strange effect of him being able to use his current strength in real life, his in-game strength carried over to real life, as well! The stronger he was in-game, the stronger he would get in reality! For some reason. Until now, he still couldn't believe that he somehow got this newfound power. If it weren't for that, he'd probably still be weak. Not like anything'd change, but getting stronger was pretty good.

"Still, I'd like to test out my capabilities in real life if I have the time..." King said. But he'd like to at least get to level 70, if not 80, first. At that level he'd be able to kill most if not all {Cataclysmic Beasts} with relative ease, and maybe start putting up a fight against {Black Beasts}. {Black Beasts} were pseudo-God level threats already, so matching up to them meant he was able to kill most Dragon-level threats with relative ease. That would probably be enough.

After all, what were the chances of running right into a God-level threat right as he logged out?

 **[2 hours later...]**

By grinding in the dungeon a whole lot, and killing those mobs which were nearly equal to him in levels, King only managed to level up thrice, bringing him up to level 58, closer to level 60.

"Now that I think about it-" King said, while pummeling a Bejeweled Golem, "-a dungeon should have a final floor, or a boss room."

From an endless massacre of mobs, King had his [Bloody Battler] and [Killing Spree] perks active, and both [Asura] and [Rampage] effects were still going, King was dealing 3x damage and he moved at 3x speed, as well, due to his [Killing Spree] and [Hunter's Grace] skill being active.

After a while, King learnt to dodge attacks effectively, and the last time he was actually hit, was around an hour and a half ago. He was moving too fast for the mobs to hit him, and his attacks were too strong for them to resist it. A punch dealt 5,800 damage, a kick dealt 17,400 damage, and a bonus of 40% more damage was applied to every hit from his [Unarmed Mastery (Tier IV)]. By cleverly using more speed and distance in his strikes, he increased the momentum of his attacks, which increased the force applied, dealing more damage.

Long story short, King was learning how to bring the hurt more effectively. Experience was a teacher like no other. Still, moving constantly without taking a break would logically take a massive chunk out of his ST bar, but then, he got himself a few new skills an hour into his grinding.

[Precise Movements] was a passive skill that made it so that all of King's movements drained 10% less ST in general, and his movements were also 20% faster.

[Tireless Juggernaut] was another passive skill which decreased the rate of ST consumption the lower his ST, and so far, his ST bar had never gone lower than 10%. With that, King was able to launch dozens of attacks at full strength and speed, and his ST bar almost never depleted. As an added bonus, whenever King's ST dropped below 20%, every 100 points of damage he dealt was converted into 10 points of ST for him, further slowing down the ST consumption.

Both of which made King an unfatigued slaughterhouse, constantly killing with vigor and without pause.

Currently, even without the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], King could dish out a lot of damage. If he were to kick, he'd deal 17,400 damage. Multiplying it by three from the effects of his skills, he'd do 52,200 damage. If he landed the kick precisely on the head, he'd deal 313,200 damage. Finally, adding 40% more damage, King would deal a total of 438,480 damage! And that was before adding in extra momentum from his strikes! King was able to deal nearly half-a-million points of damage by relying on himself, without using weapons! Looks like using his fists was the right idea after all!

Not to mention, if he were to activate [Vital Strikes], King would deal 3 times more damage on the points which where shown, meaning if he activated his skills, he could already deal more than a million damage!

And, if, and only if, he were to somehow activate a Sadist's Strike, he'd be able to even deal another 10x more damage, far surpassing the mark of 10 million HP! Even though he wasn't level 60 yet, he was strong enough to handle a {Cataclysmic Beast} already! Well, one of the weakest ones, anyway. Still, a downside was, he cannot get hit at all. If here were to get hit, he'd lose his speed, and that would be incredibly bad.

He had the damage to handle killing the thing, but he didn't have the HP to endure its attacks. King would last 2, 3 hits, tops. The first graze would make him lose his speed, and the other two would kill him faster than he could say 'fuck'.

So until he was at least level 60, he wasn't going to try going further down the dungeon. If he encountered a {Cataclysmic Beast}, he'd rather run away to be safe.

You see, the difference between this VRMMORPG and other MMORPGs was that PvP was 100% available at all places, and if you were to die to a player, your EXP would be transferred to the one whom killed you. An example was that if you were to die at level 10, and with just 1 EXP away to level up to level 11, you'd be brought back to the start of level 10, and the EXP you lost would be transferred to the player that killed you. But you don't lose levels.

However, if you were to die to a mob, you would not only lose your EXP equivalent to the HP you lost, you would lose your levels too, if you didn't have enough EXP when you at that level. Say, you were at level 51, and right at the beginning. If you died, you would lose the EXP equivalent to the HP you lost when you died, and if you didn't have enough EXP, you would level down back to level 50, but with wherever your EXP bar would be.

So in this game, one couldn't just rush in willy-nilly without regards to one's life in the game. One's EXP was also at stake when one died. And the higher-leveled you were, the greater your fall when you died. If let's say you died at level 10, you'd only lose 1,000 EXP from your HP. But when one died at say, level 90, one would lose a few million EXP, from their HP bar.

Therefore, in some cases, if was preferable that you died to a player rather than a mob, because you wouldn't risk losing your levels, whereas with mobs, you could.

Which was why King was so cautious. If no one lost EXP from dying, he wouldn't care about his in-game life, he'd just make a mad dash for the highest EXP he could get. Screw techniques and avoiding attacks, as long as he killed them, it was all good! But the game wasn't that nice. Dying had a severe penalty, too. Whether you died to a player or a mob, it was a penalty nonetheless. Losing EXP was a painful experience. Not physically, but it would hurt mentally.

Hours of grinding, lost because you wanted a cool pair of boots. That was not a fun time.

Either way, unless he leveled up another two levels, he wasn't going to be looking for {Cataclysmic Beasts} anytime soon. But if he really wanted to, he should just upgrade his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. Although the maximum damage was 1,000,000, it was 1,000,000 damage per individual attack.

Say, he put 1,000,000 damage onto a sword. It'd only deal 1,000,000 damage at most. But if he were to say, put 1,000,000 damage each onto say, a bow and a bunch of arrows, each arrow he shot would be 1,000,000 damage. And if he were to do the same with fire, it was a continuous stream of 1 million damage, for as long as the fire would burn.

If it were a 1 on 1 fight, he'd just use his fists or kicks as they would deal more damage each individual hit. If it were a large horde of enemies however, King would still use his fists. King already said that he wasn't going to use guns, so he was sticking to using his fists. They dealt more damage than the maximum value of whatever he could conjure up with his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] anyway.

He was already at the deepest level, the seventh floor. It was the level 51-60 area, which was where King was farming for the past two hours. The last floor of a dungeon always had a boss room, followed by the dungeon core, which contained various rewards in the form of valuable loot, such as weapons and armor.

As explained by the game, weapons and armor dropped by the mobs in the dungeons were weapons and armor from different adventurers that died in the dungeon, and their weapons and armor was absorbed by the dungeon.

But the game also explained why there were weapons and armor rewarded at the end of a boss fight, specifically when one entered the dungeon core room.

Powerful adventurers that died owned powerful weapons and armor which were too strong and resistant for the dungeon to absorb, and thus were simply placed in the dungeon core room, to be slowly broken down over time so it could be absorbed by the dungeon. However if one were to manage to breach the dungeon core room, one could loot all the weapons and armor before they were broken down by the dungeon.

King didn't really need weapons, but what King hoped was that there was a weapon somewhere in there that contained {Mage's Gold}. Unless it was some super-powerful weapon, King was definitely recycling the weapon for its {Mage's Gold}.

But so far in his dungeon run, aside from constantly killing mobs to level up, King still couldn't find the entrance to the so-called boss room. King wanted to know its location for future reference whenever he planned to finally conquer the dungeon. But now, he didn't plan to fight the boss yet. If following logic, the dungeon boss should be a Gold-Ranked Boss, which was level 60 at least.

Dungeon bosses and all dungeon mobs also respawn, which were normal. Every other boss, from World Bosses, bosses which spawned in the world and roamed around freely, and Quest Bosses, bosses which were encountered in a quest, did not respawn. Yes, each and every quest was unique, excluding ones that needed you to hunt for mobs or whatever that was repeatable.

After a while, King gave up on trying to look for the boss room. What he could do now was buy some {Mage's Gold} at the Merchant's Guild. Although chances of him being able to procure that from the Merchant's Guild was pretty slim, he could at least try.

With that, King left the dungeon, but not before collecting all the loot. The only thing that remained from mobs for a long time in the dungeon were weapons and armor that they dropped, which would only be absorbed by the dungeon after a long time, a {Mana Crystals}, which took an even longer time to absorb, depending on the grade. {F-Class Mana Crystals} would be absorbed in around three days, {E-Class Mana Crystals} would be absorbed in a week, and {D-Class Mana Crystals} would last a month, if left on the dungeon floor without being picked up. That's how long it took for the dungeon to absorb everything.

Dead bodies however would be absorbed in around 5 to 10 minutes.

Leaving the dungeon, King noticed that the guards threw him strange looks as he left the dungeon. Ignoring it, King went to the Adventurer's Guild first to turn in his quest, and then go to the Merchant's Guild to trade in stuff for {Mage's Gold}. The items he picked up weren't too shabby, so they would probably sell for some amount. King already had 60 inventory slots, so even after dungeon-running for so long, he still had some space left in his inventory.

As he entered the Adventurer's Guild again, King then looked for the receptionist to turn in his quest.

"Ah, hello, sir. Is there anything we can do for you?" The receptionist politely asked.

"I'd like to turn in my quest." King answered.

"Okay. Please hand in your quest flier." The receptionist said.

Taking out his quest flier, King saw that the previous 0/100 had already filled to 100/100, and a small red tick was located beside it.

"Everything seems to be in order, please hand in your Adventurer's Badge so that we may record your contribution points." The receptionist politely requested.

"Contribution points?" King asked. It was the first time he heard about these 'contribution points'.

"Oh, you must be a new adventurer. Contribution points are points which are recorded as how many quests you have undertaken. Said points can be exchanged for anything and everything that we have in the Adventurer's Guild." The receptionist explained.

" _Oh, so it's like a point reward system."_ King thought.

King handed his badge in, and when he got it back, he noticed that the originally dull badge now had a glowing number above it, which read '100'.

"Also, I'd like to ask something." King asked.

"Yes?"

"How does an adventurer increase his rank?" King asked.

"Oh, one would need to accumulate enough contribution points, and then take the Adventurer's Improvement Trial, by sparring against 10 adventurers of the same rank as you and defeating them to be able to advance to the next rank. The same holds true for every rank." The receptionist answered.

"I see. Let's say from a Copper-Ranked Adventurer to an Iron-Ranked Adventurer, how many contribution points do I need?" King asked.

"From a Copper-Ranked Adventurer to an Iron-Ranked Adventurer, one would only need about 100 contribution points." The receptionist said. "Going forward, from an Iron-Ranked Adventurer to a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer, one would need 10,000 contribution points. Bronze to Silver would be 1,000,000 contribution points, Silver to Gold would be 100,000,000 contribution points, and so on."

"I see. Can I already increase my rank to an Iron-Ranked Adventurer?" King asked.

"Of course, if you have enough contribution points. Keep in mind, the points would be deducted for taking the Adventurer's Improvement Trial by itself, and even if you fail, the points would be deducted. The only way to keep your contribution points is to successfully pass the Adventurer's Improvement Trial." The receptionist advised.

"So it's like that..." King said. "Okay. I'll take the Trial or whatever it's called."

"Alright." The receptionist said, before going into the back.

After a while, the receptionist came back. "Please, follow me."

Following the receptionist from behind, King arrived at a large area, with ten other people in the arena.

" _They're probably the other ten Copper-Ranked Adventurers that I need to defeat to rank up."_ King thought.

"Alright, the adventurer that wanted to rank up is here. As agreed, if you manage to take him down, each of you get 10 contribution points." The receptionist said, before backing off to a safe spot to watch from a distance.

" _So that's why I lose my contribution points if I fail the exam. The points go to these adventurers."_ King thought.

"You can start now." The receptionist said, but on the inside, she was laughing. Actually, she and the other ten adventurers were in cahoots with each other. If she brought them easy prey, she'd get a cut of the profits, too.

But not even a minute after she said 'now', she regretted everything.

The adventurers had barely gotten into a circle before King broke their ranks by disarming them and knocking them to the floor, one by one. They couldn't even land a hit on King, whom was busy knocking down the adventurers which were trying to get up. Not even 30 seconds later, all of them were on the floor, with King being the single one left standing.

The receptionist started getting cold sweat. She assumed this person was just another impatient adventurer who wanted to rise up the ranks fast! She didn't think that in the end, he was the real deal! When he walked in, he was the only one whom wasn't wearing any armor or any visible weapons on him. All he had on him was a grey tunic, white pants, and a leather belt! Literally nothing else was on him!

But this common everyday person she could find on the street was actually beating all of them with ease! Not even an Iron-Ranked adventurer could do that! This was on the level of a top-class Iron-Ranked Adventurer, or maybe even Bronze-Ranked adventurer! The adventurers she were working with were all top-class Copper-Ranked Adventurers, and would even be able to hold out against a normal Iron-Ranked adventurer if they worked together!

But what was in front of her? All of them were easily dominated. This was the marking of a veteran Iron-Ranked Adventurer, or a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer!

At that thought, her blood froze. If the man ahead of her found out, she would definitely be out of a job, or worse! She was just an ordinary receptionist, and only had the same authority of an Iron-Ranked adventurer, even if she had no combat ability!

A Bronze-Ranked Adventurer was capable of fighting {Elite Beasts}, which were powerful beasts which could even kill off an entire village if no one could stop it!

Previously, she was just thinking of earning a quick coin. Now, she just prayed that he didn't find out what she did.

"Well, I defeated all of them. Can I rank up now?" King asked, snapping the receptionist out of thought.

"Y-yes! You're now an Iron-Ranked Adventurer!" The receptionist said, her voice quivering a little.

 _"Why does she sound so scared?"_ King thought. Looking around, all the Copper-Ranked Adventurers around him were on the ground. Although they weren't all that hurt, the way he defeated all of them easily shocked the Copper-Ranked Adventurers, as they simply remained on the ground.

" _Ah, she's probably shocked from seeing me defeat all of them so easily."_ King thought.

"A-anyway, please follow me to get your Iron-Ranked Adventurer's Badge." The receptionist said, her voice still a little shaky. From his facial expression, it seems like he didn't know about what she did. The fact that he didn't find out calmed her a little, but she was still afraid. This was a possible Bronze-Ranked Adventurer, here!

After receiving his [Iron-Ranked Adventurer's Badge], King's title of a [Copper-Ranked Adventurer] changed into a [Iron-Ranked Adventurer], which increased his EXP gain in undiscovered areas and dungeons from 10% to 20%.

" _I guess these adventurer titles are pretty useful! I should focus on ranking up, too."_ King thought. If the higher his rank, the higher his EXP gain, then obviously he'd want to be higher in rank.

" _If defeating adventurers is all I needed to rank up, this would be easy. But I need 10,000 contribution points, now."_ King thought. _"Okay, enough thinking. I should go to the Merchant's Guild first to sell off all my stuff."_

As he went out of the Adventurer's Guild, King didn't forget to look for another quest. King picked the one with the highest contribution points, which was killing 500 mobs in the dungeon, worth 500 contribution points.

Finding the Merchant's Guild again, King went in, and everything seemed to be the same. The receptionists changed, though.

" _I guess the game has shifts. I already know this, but damn, the AI is good. That or the programming."_ King thought.

This time, the receptionist was a red-haired fox demi-human.

"Hello! What can the merchant's guild do for you on such a lovely day?" The receptionist greeted cheerfully.

" _I'm sensing a small pattern. All the demi-humans are always more positive and cheerful, whereas all the humans are more reserved. I wonder why."_ King thought. "I'd like to sell some items."

"Alright! What will you be selling?" The receptionist asked.

"Well, just these few items." King said, taking out almost all of his swords, shields, armors, etc. He purposely left out those level 30-50 equipment, because they might come in handy some other time. A good thing about the items in-game was, that there was no level limit on weapons. Meaning, one could be level 1 but use a level 100 sword. Well, in theory, one could, anyway. No one in their right mind would give out level 100 weapons. Well, at least, not now, when the highest-leveled player, aside from King, was level 21. Even King himself wouldn't give out level 100 weapons to some Tom, Dick or Harry. He himself was still level 60!

Still, when a least one player reaches the level limit of 100, the game would then start patching and adding in new stuff, and then the next level cap would change from 100 to 200. This would only continue up to level 300, then the game would have 'something special' in store. Obviously, players would be intrigued about it, but they were still far from level 100, so it wasn't time to think about it yet.

As per usual, the crowd in the Merchant's Guild were astonished that a pile of weapons and armor appeared from nothing but thin air.

"Hey, does he..." "Wait a second, it's that guy from yesterday!" "The guy with an Item Bag!" "Yeah, he's the one! Three scars on his left eye!"

Again, loud chatter ensued about King's 'Item Bag'. Even after they heard about someone with an item bag the day before, seeing it in person was different from hearsay.

"A-alright. Please wait here while we process your items." The receptionist said, motioning for the guards nearby her to carry the entire pile of loot to the back so they could evaluate its worth.

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter...**

King waited for ten minutes in the lobby, yet they hadn't come back out yet.

" _This is strange, it's just a bunch of level 5-25 gear, what's taking the appraisal so long...?"_ King thought. Even the 10 lion pelts he brought in the first time was settled in just around 30 seconds. There was a lot of armor, sure. But it didn't number more than 20, in fact, there were exactly 20 sets of armor and weapons! The other 32 he had in his inventory were all level 30 and above.

" _Still, exactly 20 pieces of gear below level 20 and 32 pieces of gear at level 30 and higher... eh? Why's there only 31 pieces left?"_ Something was amiss. King counted all of them beforehand, and he remembered he had exactly 20 pieces of gear he could sell, and another 32 pieces he would keep, due to them being too high-leveled. But now, one of them was missing.

Not even three seconds after he found out one of the level 30 and above gear was missing, King realized why it was taking so long.

" _Fuck."_

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	4. Chapter 4: Rising Rapidly

**Chapter 4: Rising Rapidly**

* * *

King waited for ten minutes in the lobby, yet they hadn't come back out yet.

" _This is strange, it's just a bunch of level 25 gear, what's taking the appraisal so long...?"_ King thought. Even the 10 lion pelts he brought in the first time was settled in just around 30 seconds. There was a lot of armor, sure. But it didn't number more than 20, in fact, there were exactly 20 sets of armor and weapons! The other 32 he had in his inventory were all level 30 and above.

" _Still, exactly 20 pieces of gear below level 30 and 32 pieces of gear at level 30 and higher... eh? Why's there only 31 pieces left?"_ Something was amiss. King counted all of them beforehand, and he remembered he had exactly 20 pieces of gear he could sell, and another 32 pieces he would keep, due to them being too high-leveled. But now, one of them was missing.

Not even three seconds after he found out one of the level 30 and above gear was missing, King realized why it was taking so long.

" _Fuck."_

A level 30-50 item appearing when the highest-known level achieved in the game at this stage was just slightly over level 20?

King wished nothing more than to rush in and take back the item, but he didn't want to cause a commotion. Not to mention, although they were AI, they were amazingly smart! They might even get suspicious! They seemed like a good bunch, but King knew they were all just hungry for cash. Every door-to-door salesman he knew taught him that. At least, until he got his face, and S-Class status. Then, no door-to-door salesman had ever bothered him ever again.

If it came to a profit, they were perfectly willing to shake hands with you, and stab you in the back the next second!

Now, all King hoped that they didn't understand the value of the item, and then he could simply take the item back.

It might rouse suspicion, but better than them finding out it was a level 40 item! King checked. The one he was missing was a pair of level 40 gauntlets. Although it didn't look like much, it would raise both one's STR and VIT stats by 150 each, bringing it up to a total increase of 350, as wearing both at the same time gave a bonus +50 to STR and VIT!

Well, it simply goes to show that equipment would contribute a lot to one's stats. But King basically had every possible armor and weapon at his disposal, from his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], so he didn't really need to keep any. Also, the armor would only hinder his movement speed. His forte, aside from dealing damage, was his speed. One didn't need armor if one was never going to get hit in the first place!

Also, in some events where all players were stripped of their items, it was best to be able to rely on one's base stats. It didn't matter how good your equipment was, if one's base stats were higher than the opponent's total combined stats, then nothing needed to be said.

Still, King's stats were already incredibly high, at 5,800 each. If he added on armor, it would be a massive increase. In fact, King COULD. It's just that it restricted his movement. For a player that depended on speed to resist enemy attacks, mobility was key.

Finally, the receptionist from earlier appeared, and she didn't look flustered or happy, or anything in general. She looked as if the value of the items were pretty much as they were expected to be.

" _Do they not realize its value...? Good. If I can ask it back, then it'd be great. As much as I don't want to attract attention, there's no way I'm selling level 40 gear at level 20 prices."_ King thought, before rising up from his seat to ask the receptionist about his items.

"Excuse me, but what took so long to evaluate everything?" King asked.

"Sorry for the wait, our in-house specialist simply took a little bit longer to figure out the properties of the items." The receptionist answered, as if it was expected.

" _I think I see where this is going..."_ King thought. As something as cliche as the barbarian-dude interrupting him while he was talking with the receptionist at the time, this was probably another scene of the trader attempting to cut a deal which was immensely profitable to the dealer whilst not telling him the true value of the object. Sadly, when it comes to things like this, the level-value of items are immediately revealed whenever they were picked up.

Only exceptions were special items, quest items, or items which were at least 20 levels higher than the player, to which it would look like a regular item, but its description would be in question marks.

"I see. So what's the total value?" King asked.

"Just about 200,000 gold coins." The receptionist answered. King sighed inwardly. That was just about the value stated on all of the gear without counting the level 40 gauntlets, which would've totaled up to 172,000 gold coins. But then there was an extra 28,000 gold coins, which King presumed was them trying to sweeten the deal, so King would accept.

"200,000 gold coins for just those 20 pieces of weapons and armor? That's a good deal." King said. This was a test. If the receptionist responded the way he expected him to-

"Eh? But we counted 21 pieces?" The receptionist said, puzzled.

" _Huh, so I guess the receptionist isn't in on it?"_ King wondered. "That's strange. I remember only needing to sell 20 pieces? Hold on, could you take me to the items? I think I might've accidentally taken out something I didn't want to sell."

"Oh, I see. That's perfectly fine." The receptionist said, motioning for the guards to let King pass while he went through the back-door with the receptionist.

The inside of the Merchant's Guild was just as clean and tidy as the outside, if not cleaner. It impressed King. But then again, impressing King with housework wasn't all that hard. He wasn't that much of a neat-freak anyway. Hell, some slobs were probably more hygienic than him when it came to the living room. The only thing he cared to clean was his bedroom and the toilet.

Entering a well-furnished room, King was greeted with the sight of the huge pile of what he wanted to sell... and yes, the level 40 pair of gauntlets were there. And beside the pile, there were three people, a rather plump man wearing a monocle, a thin and lanky person with a pair of glasses, and a young boy whom didn't look a day over 16. The first was dressed pompously, the second was wearing less showy clothing, but expensive nonetheless, and the young boy was just wearing a butler's uniform.

" _I guess its a part-time servant or something..."_ King said, glancing at the boy, before looking back at the pile of weapons and armor before him.

"Ah, and this must be the customer that procured these items?" The thin and lanky man said.

"Yes. I'm here to-" King said halfway, before he was interrupted by a boisterous voice.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Good find, good find! These are incredibly valuable items, very much so!" The fat man said. "Most of these, I've only ever seen whenever a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer passed by the city to sell off the loot they got! Most of the time they don't get much of it, yet you stumbled upon this much! An amazing fortune really landed on your hands!"

"So that's why it was worth a lot. Anyway, I'm here because the receptionist over there said there were 21 items that I was planning to sell, right?" King asked.

At that moment, simply because King's eyes were a lot more perceptive due to his high level, both the fat man and the thin man's eyes looked at each other for a split second, before the thin man adjusted his spectacles, and said, "Yes, what about it?"

"I only planned to sell 20 items. I may have accidentally placed another item which I didn't want to sell." King said.

The thin man's eyes widened for a split second before returning to normal. "I see. Of course, we'll have to adjust the prices accordingly. The previous amount was for the 21 items in front of us, not 20 items, with one less."

"Of course." King said, before taking the level 40 gauntlets. Both the fat man and the thin man's eyes widened at the same time. " _So they're in on it, after all."_

"These gauntlets. I wanted to keep these. It seemed like a fitting replacement for my old ones." King said, keeping the gauntlets at his side after retrieving them from the pile.

"I see. But say we wanted those gauntlets, we would buy them from you at an appropriate price, and we'd sell you a better pair of gauntlets, too, at a reasonable price." They cast the bait. But King read way too many novels to fall for this kind of shit.

"Hoh? Is there something valuable about this pair of gauntlets?" King asked, acting dumb.

"Oh, not really, no. It's just that a buyer just so happened to fancy a pair of gauntlets just like yours. They liked the intricate detail and ancient style reminiscent of the gauntlets beside you, and are willing to pay a large sum of coins. He's an avid collector." The thin man said.

"I see. And how much would he pay for said gauntlets?" King asked.

"A princely sum of 17,000 gold. They're a rare piece of armor only made a long time ago, and the buyer's a fanatic about things like that. Although the materials in the gauntlets are worth about 900 to 1,000 gold, the workmanship and age of it makes it quite the collector's item." The thin man lied.

King knew the price, in terms of functionality alone, was worth a few million gold. They gave the wearer a boost of 350 STR and VIT when worn together, and they allowed an ordinary person at level 1 the strength of a level 35 without armor or boosts to his stats! Simply put, an ordinary person, when wearing these gauntlets, would gain the strength surpassing that of a tiger! Literally!

And those were just gauntlets! To give the strength of a tiger, by just wearing a pair of gauntlets, it was definitely going to be worth more than just a few million gold. Yet these two wanted King to sell it for how much? 17,000? That was like asking for a Ferrari, while only paying less than two million yen!

" _Merchants will be merchants. Well, not like I can blame them. It's a massive profit, and if I were in their shoes, this would make perfect sense, if not common sense."_ King thought.

"They were willing to pay around 17,000 gold coins, so we'd give you a price of 15,000 gold coins. If you want to buy better gauntlets, we can give you a 1,000 gold discount on your next purchase." The fat man offered. "Well, we need to make a profit, so 1,000 gold to both of us sounds good, yes?"

"Interesting, but I'm not selling." King said.

This shocked the two merchants. They offered him essentially 16,000 gold! And he refused? Did he really look as clueless as he seemed, or was he actually fishing for a better deal, testing the waters?

Whichever one of the two, this man wasn't as simple as they assumed! He seemed like a rough adventurer at first, but he was more refined than he seemed, and although brutally direct, was rather polite.

Now that they thought about it, it was rather stupid of them to look down on him. If he could take out so many high-value items, he was either very strong to be able to get them directly, or there was a backer behind him. Chances were, it was the former, with his muscled and chiseled body and how rough his face looked like. A stare looked as if it could kill. With how large and intimidating he was, if he wasn't an adventurer or at least a mercenary, that would be quite the shock.

"I-if we may ask, why do you reject the deal? It seems like a rather good price for a pair of gauntlets." The thin merchant asked.

"Yes! A valuable collector's item such as this should not be wasted away as ordinary gauntlets! My experience as an expert [Appraiser] would put this around three to four thousand years old, from the ancient Raffinato Empire!" The fat [Appraiser] said.

 _"An [Appraiser], huh, first time seeing an NPC with that Job. Still, they might be right. The item comes from a dungeon, and who knows how old the items really are."_ King thought.

"Well, I just thought these would make good gauntlets. Personally, I like them. I'm not really short in cash or anything, so there isn't much I need. I'll keep the gauntlets anyway, they match the color and style of my armor, too." King said. And he wasn't lying. After a while, he really did collect all gauntlets, leggings, boots, helmet, and cuirass. They just so happened to be part of the same set, too.

The merchants froze.

"...what?" King asked. He expected a few things, but the merchants freezing up on him weren't one of them.

"D-did you say you had an entire set of armor? Matching the style and color of the gauntlets, to boot?" The fat [Appraiser] asked.

"Yes, why?" King asked.

The fat [Appraiser] then put his hands together, looked at the thin man, and they both nodded at each other, openly, this time.

"We'll be honest with you. The value we gave you earlier was actually not the real value of the pair of gauntlets. We'd like to clear this up before we continue." The fat [Appraiser] said.

At this moment, King laughed, puzzling the merchants.

"Sorry, it's the first time a merchant had admitted that in front of me. I did not expect that whatsoever." King said. "They'd always change the topic or deny it vehemently."

"Ah, that's right. Most amateur merchants always do that to save face. But a true merchant sells their face!" The thin man said while adjusting his spectacles, saying it as if it were simply expected.

"Well, you've piqued my interest. What is it that you wanted to say?" King asked.

"You probably already know the true value of these gauntlets, don't you?" The fat [Appraiser] said.

"Of course." King said, confirming the two merchants's thoughts.

"Well, then you know that it is a highly powerful artifact, but do you know whom these gauntlets belong to?" The fat [Appraiser] asked.

"No. I only know that it can give the raw strength and vitality of a tiger when worn, even by an ordinary person." King said.

"Well, it's to be expected, after all, it belongs to the [General] of the Raffinato Empire, more specifically, General Prudens, the wisest and most cunning general to have served under Emperor . Cunning and wise he was, yet in battle he was also the most brutal. He was not only the wisest [General], he was also the strongest [General] to ever serve in the entire history of the Raffinato Empire. Of course his equipment would be top-notch. The enchantments themselves are worthy of legend." The fat [Appraiser] said.

"Noteworthy achievements of his are-" The fat [Appraiser] began, but then King interrupted him.

"I want to know how much you can offer me, not a history lesson."

"Ah, sorry about that. These gauntlets are worth 4 million gold coins in functionality and materials, and in terms of historical value alone, 2 million gold coins. Adding them up, they're worth a total of 6 million gold coins." The [Appraiser] said.

" _Huh, so I guess the value already refers to its total value, including historical or whatever value."_ King thought. The value mark for his gauntlets were precisely 6 million gold coins.

"We weren't lying about the collector, though. He's the [Fourth Prince] of the Redspear Empire. He's willing to pay up to 7 to 8 million for this single pair of gauntlets, and if we brought him the whole armor set, he'd even pay up to 100 million gold coins! Well, of course, not ENTIRELY 100 million gold coins, that'd be too much to carry. Instead, he'd pay in 100 royal coins, or a single Imperial coin." The thin merchant said.

From King's knowledge, the money used in the game were coins, and were separated into many forms, since people didn't want to start hauling around billions if not trillions of coins for a transaction in the late-game.

Money was split into copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, platinum coins, etc. It was a fairly simple conversion system, 100 copper coins are worth 1 silver coin, 100 silver coins are worth 1 gold coin, 100 gold coins are worth 1 platinum coin, and so on. Past that, the coins remained in platinum and gold, but their size, design, and other miscellaneous additions were the ones that gave the coins their value.

They were as follows:

Copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, platinum coins, noble coins, royal coins, Imperial coins, Saint coins, and Sage coins. Following that, it was said that in those Kingdoms, Empires, and Cities of legend, like Orbis, used Sage coins like change, and used a new form of currency, known as bills.

Yep, at level 90 and above, one paid in cash.

Copper coins were basically just change, seeing as one copper coin was the equivalent of 2 yen. Silver coins were worth around 220 yen, and around two silver coins could get you a standard meal of one bowl of noodles. Yes, the game had noodles.

One gold coin was the same as two notes of 10,000 yen and another two 1,000 yen notes. Platinum coins were 100 times the value of gold coins, and were mainly used for transactions which included sums greater than 10,000 gold.

Noble coins were basically just platinum coins but with gold around the edges and the kingdom's insignia was emboldened on it. Royal coins, as per the name, were mainly used among royalty, due to how monstrously large the value of a single royal gold coin was worth. It was also five times larger than the standard coins, too.

Well, royal coins were for royalty, or incredibly high-ranked adventurers. 'royal' was a term used for the royalty in cities of kingdoms, and for the larger empires, royal coins were the same as noble coins were for nobles, which brought them to the next item of value, Imperial coins.

A single Imperial coin was almost the same as the value of one small section of an entire city. And King could get one of those... for a set of armor he got by coincidence in the dungeon.

Saint coins were 100 times that, Sage coins were 100 times of _that_ , and at level 90, all of that would be irrelevant, because Sage coins would be used like ordinary 500 yen coins, and a new form of currency would be used, which were literally just notes of money.

If one was level 90, one could change one Sage coin for copper coins, and literally destroy a small kingdom by literally drowning them in said copper coins. That, or just using a single Sage coin to undermine the entire economy of the kingdom.

...getting off track, King's full suit of armor was worth 1 Imperial coin.

"Tell the [Fourth Prince] he has a deal. And I'll take it in royal coins." King agreed, trading in the suit of armor. He didn't want to attract attention and all that by selling high-level gear, but seeing as there was only him and the two merchants in front of him, what could go wrong?

...plenty, actually, but King was optimistic.

"Great! Because we'll be reporting this to the higher-ups so that the transaction may be processed, getting the money will take some time. However, we can procure 5 royal coins right now, and you can get the remaining 95 once we're done." The thin merchant said.

"That is alright. I'd like to know the fee for getting all this done is worth?" King asked.

"Well, usually us middlemen would just take a small percentage, but because we'll be promoted from overseeing a transaction of this size, we won't collect a fee. Our increase in pay is enough for us." The fat [Appraiser] laughed.

"I'll trust in you, then. So, how will you be able to contact me?" King asked.

"We'll simply contact you by the Adventurer's Guild. The Merchant's Guild and the Adventurer's Guild has a pretty good relationship." The thin merchant said.

"Tell you what, bring more rare and unique artifacts to us, and maybe we'll be able to give you better prices on whatever you'll need?" The fat [Appraiser] said jokingly.

"Well, here's to a long and successful partnership!" King said, extending a handshake, which was responded in kind by both the [Appraiser] and the thin merchant.

After a small chat and receiving 5 royal coins as advance payment, King left the building, leaving with 4 more inventory slots than he first entered, and a agreement of 100 royal coins, also known as 100,000,000 gold coins.

Also, King changed what he was trading, by just selling the level 40 suit of armor, and kept the 20 pieces of equipment he wanted to sell. King had an idea.

 **{The Adventurer's Guild Branch...}**

King entered the guild building, and it was rowdy as per usual. Walking up to the receptionist, he asked her about trading equipment in for contribution points.

As he expected, it was indeed possible to do so. Trading all of the 20 pieces of equipment he didn't sell at the Merchant's Guild in for contribution points, King had already gotten around 200,000 contribution points from them. More than enough to rank up, which he did.

Easily taking out the other 10 Iron-Ranked Adventurers, King ranked up to a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer, as he got an extra 30% EXP bonus for fighting in dungeons and undiscovered areas. Meaning, he'd level up much faster. Currently, King was one of the highest-ranked adventurers in this city, as the starter city was meant to be for level 1-30 only. Except the dungeon, which extended to level 60, for some reason.

Exiting the city, King saw the familiar grassy flatland ahead of him. It was where he farmed all the way until he was level 50 with the power of modern weaponry. Following the map, King then traveled to the furthest city on his map, Aurum. It was a level 40-60 city, in a different Kingdom.

Usually, one would need to take a few days to travel between cities by carriage, and by horse, 6 to 7 hours, at the fastest. The city King was headed to was at least a few weeks away by carriage, and four to five days by horse, even if running non-stop.

But, here's where King's unfair advantage shone.

Materializing a supersonic fighter jet, King flew to the city.

 **[1 hour later...]**

A trip which would've taken King a few days in total took only an hour from a fighter jet materialized from the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. This wasn't really cheating, since it was an in-game item, but King didn't like it anyway. Still, there was no way he was wasting a few weeks of time to travel by cart. In that period of time, he might get attacked by a bunch of Dragon-level threats in real life.

Well, sure, he was level 58, but that was only enough to deal with some weak Dragon-level threats. If, and IF, there happened to be some super strong monster that King can't defeat, then he was fucked. Well, unless he used the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] to his advantage.

De-materializing the jet just a few kilometers away from the city, King ran the rest of the way before slowing to a walk when he reached the gates.

Needless to say, the difference of this city and the starter one was like the difference between a piece of random cut of beef that is on sale, and top-class, A-grade Wagyu beef. Speaking of Wagyu beef, even King only tasted it once when he went to the Heroes Association resort after the alien invasion.

The first city had decent walls, but the fortifications of this city was like, 50 meters tall. From afar, the wall was also at least 20 meters thick. There was even a large moat around the city walls, with the only way in being the massive drawbridge.

"Fuck, the size of these walls can put the Heroes Association headquarters to shame." King said to himself.

And if that wasn't enough, the walls also had decorations on them, like large lion faces, and huge banners with an insignia of a gold shield and a red spear.

There was a large stream of people entering and exiting the city through the massive gates, which were at least 20 meters in width and 30 meters in height. There were beings of all shapes and sizes, ranging from beastkin, to humans, to giants, dwarves, etc. King could see all of it due to his improved eyesight gained from leveling up. Why was his eyesight improved from leveling up? He didn't know.

Not to mention, although it was a level 40-60 city, there were people from level 1 to level 50 and above walking the gates. Speaking of which, the only reason King knew that was apparently, he was just stupid. There WAS a function which allowed him to see the exact level of mobs, he just didn't activate it when he first logged in.

All King did was think, 'man, how easy it'd be if I could just tell the level of a mob'. Soon, it appeared. King could see the exact level of the NPCs and players, displayed right above their heads, or in the case of players, right above their name-tags.

However, the function had a flaw. Certain NPCs could hide their actual level, and players can choose to conceal their real level, or put a fake level value. The only thing was, although the levels could be completely hidden, the faked levels can only be lower than one's real level, whether one was an NPC or a player.

Therefore, one could never be too cautious. That one level 3 beggar might be a level 60 master in disguise, like those Wuxia-novels that a friend of his introduced to him. However, there was no chance of a level 60 master turning out to be a level 10 sham, because even though levels could be faked, they couldn't be faked to be above one's true level.

King then blended into the crowd easily, and entered the city.

The city, Aurum, basically put the starting city, and every other city King knew of to shame. The buildings were massive and grandly decorated, the knight statues were made of pure {Enchanted Steel}, and the armor and weaponry of the city guards were higher-leveled than some of the best equipment King had in his inventory.

" _I guess I could sell everything I have here and still not be conspicuous."_ King thought. Seeing as he didn't really need money all that much YET, King decided the best way to do things now was to find the branch of the Adventurer's Guild in this city and trade in all the equipment he had for contribution points, and take the rank-up test so he would be able to become a [Silver Ranked Adventurer]. If he was lucky, he might even be able to become a [Gold-Ranked Adventurer].

That way, his farming speed would be much, much faster. A whole 50% increase in EXP gain? That was more than enough to ensure he made it to level 70~80 by the end of the week, if he kept his pace of farming.

Also, it was much easier to get around now, because just as everyone entered, there was a massive map, detailing everything and everywhere in the city, which made it much easier for King to find the Adventurer's Guild.

As he arrived, the difference was already stark. The previous Adventurer's Guild, although not really run-down, looked more like a pub, as it was constructed entirely out of wood and just a bit of stone. This Adventurer's Guild branch was more than five times the size, the building was actually made of stone, for once, and it looked like it wasn't a re-purposed pub. Not to mention, like the knight statues, some parts of the walls were reinforced with {Enchanted Steel}.

As he walked in, the differences were even bigger. Compared to the rowdy atmosphere of the previous Adventurer's Guild branch, this was wasn't really rowdy like a pub, it was more like a civilized chatter in a cafe. The adventurers were chatting with one another, and the atmosphere was similar to that of a cafe. Well, it would almost pass for a cafe, if not for the contents of the conversations, and the armor they were wearing.

"Hey, so how was the group expedition?" "Oh, nothing much. It was expected. A Cloak Spider managed to get into Jeanne's armor, though. That was worth a laugh." "So my pet Flame Cat ended up eating a Mineral Slime while I was killing Golems so I had to bring it to the caretaker. He says that Chili should be up and about once the last of the quartz leaves his belly." "Man, I love going to the fourth floor! Especially when it's mating season for the Razor Moths. I'd pay to see Eliza's ass again. I should probably get a Razor Moth for a pet..."

Aside from the ridiculous topics, the adventurers were wearing high-level gear which made King's dullness stand out. Well, dull, seeing as only King was wearing a grey tunic and white pants. In a city as prosperous as this, they might even mistake King as a beggar, or a pauper.

And as he expected, due to his clothing which he had not changed from the very beginning of him playing, he stood out massively. Other adventurers were looking at him with strange gazes, not understanding why would King possibly be there. Even the most normal of commoners in this city were wearing more luxurious clothing than he was.

Well, one thing that was different was that King's clothing was unusually bloody. He killed the mobs without a care to his clothing, so even when he logged back in, his in-game body was still covered in the blood of other mobs. Well, dried blood. Past the sixth level of the dungeon in the starter city, flesh and blood mobs were rarer and rarer, being replaced with golems, higher-leveled slimes, and skeletons.

" _Maybe I should've washed it while I was out."_ King thought. He could've taken it out from his inventory at the time, but it was full of blood, so King saw no reason to dirty his floor.

Aside from everyone else in the guild that was wearing unusually sparkling-clean armor, King was the only one whose clothes were caked in dried blood. The dried blood on his face was still visible, too.

"U-uhm, this might sound rude, but why are you covered head-to-toe in dried blood?" A young adventurer asked.

"I was killing mobs. The blood got onto me." King responded.

"Why didn't you just clean it off?" The adventurer asked.

"I was busy."

"Why not just use the [Clean] spell? They barely cost any mana to cast."

" _There was a [Clean] spell?"_ King thought. Thinking about it, aside from using his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], he had never used any real magic spells. He didn't even know any spells yet!

"...don't have it." King said, embarrassed. In a level 50-60 city like this, he walked in here without any spells. " _I should've bought some spells from the Mage's Guild before I left the city! Fuck! Even if it's just NPCs, it's embarrassing!"_ King thought.

What others viewed was different, though. Although he was feeling embarrassed, his face was still as stoic and intense as usual, instead. 'Stoic and Intense' used as a description for how the NPCs felt when they saw King.

"A-a-a-a-alright! I'll clean it for you right away." The young adventurer, whom was intimidated a bit too much, decided to clean it for King instead, by casting a [Clean] spell on King.

Immediately, a refreshing feeling enveloped King, as all the dirt and blood and everything else was cleaned off magically. Unlike regular cleaning, which cleaned dirt off, the blood and dirt on King literally disappeared.

"Hmm. Thanks." King said, although inside, he was still a little embarrassed that he needed an NPC to cast the [Clean] spell on him.

" _Dammit! After I rank up, I'm going to go to the Mages Guild to buy some spells!"_ King thought.

After getting cleaned, King walked up to the receptionist's desk.

"I'd like to turn these in for contribution points." King said, taking out every last bit of loot under level 50 he gained from inside the starter dungeon.

"Alright. Please wait a moment." The employee said, before motioning for the workers to bring all of the equipment to the back to be evaluated.

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"That's 805,889,450 contribution points in total. Is there anything else you'd like to add?" The employee asked. At the start of the game, the points would definitely be enough to shock someone to death. But once people reach level 50 and above, this amount of contribution points would be pretty normal.

"No thanks. Ah, I'd like to use them to take the Improvement Trial." King said.

"Okay. Please hand in your Adventurer's Badge for the moment." The employee said.

Once again, King followed standard procedure, which was handing in his Adventurer's Badge, before following the Adventurer's Guild employee to undergo the Adventurer's Improvement Trial.

Walking into a large arena, King saw ten people already waiting, which he presumed were the ten Bronze-Ranked adventurers he was to defeat before ranking up to a Silver-Ranked Adventurer.

"Alright. This is the candidate that wants to rank up from a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer to a Silver-Ranked Adventurer. You may exchange names and formalities and the like, and you may start whenever. I will wait in the corner." The employee said.

One of the Bronze-Ranked Adventurers sat up, and walked towards King, extending a handshake. "Pleased to meet you. I'm a fellow Bronze-Ranked Adventurer, although you might be a Silver-Ranked if you rank up. Please go easy on us." The adventurer said, smiling.

"Pleased to meet you." King said, returning the handshake.

"Alright, we're ready whenever you are." The adventurer said, before the group got into their battle stances.

"Okay. I'll start, then." King said, before proceeding to fight them, but he didn't want to utterly crush them. No, he went easy on them, although he still dominated them, but not as badly as when he ranked up from Copper to Iron and Iron to Bronze. He just didn't want to waste his time. They were taunting him and all that, King couldn't care less about them, and took them down efficiently.

But this time, the NPC was friendly, so King couldn't bring himself to utterly dominate them without letting them fight back. At least, he made it seem like they could fight back, and the blows King blocked and dodged... even if it landed on him, it would've done nothing. Most Bronze-Ranked adventurers were level 20-30, anyway. He should be a Gold-Ranked Adventurer, at least. He'd try for Platinum when he got enough contribution points.

After a few minutes, King was untouched and barely fazed, whereas the other adventurers were sweating and panting.

" _Sigh..._ It's no use. We can't reach him, and his attacks, although unarmed, are pretty heavy. We give up." The adventurer said, using his sword as a support. All 10 Bronze-Ranked Adventurers were sweating and panting heavily.

"Alright. Congratulations on ranking up to a Silver-Ranked Adventurer. Please follow me to get your new badge." The employee said, but then King added;

"Ah, if possible, I'd like to take another Improvement Trial from Silver to Gold, if you could." King requested.

Did they hear that right? He wanted to rank up to a Gold-Ranked Adventurer? Even in the city, a Gold-Ranked Adventurer was on-par with the City Lord's Elite Guard! He just ranked up from Bronze to Silver, and he wanted to rank up _again?_

"E-excuse me, did you say you wanted to take another Improvement Trial to rank up to a Gold-Ranked Adventurer?" The employee asked once more to confirm King's intentions.

"Yes. I want to take another Improvement Trial." King said.

"Do you need time to fetch your weapons and armor, or-" The employee asked, but King answered before he could finish.

"No need. I'll fight unarmed." King said simply, stretching his arms. _"To tell the truth, I'm more used to using my hands."_ King said to himself.

"A-alright. Please wait a while, I'll inform the nearest Silver-Ranked Adventurers." The employee said, leaving the room, while also leaving some dumbfounded Bronze-Ranked Adventurers.

After a while, when the Bronze-Ranked Adventurers left the room, 10 other adventurers entered the room, with clearly superior armor and weapons compared to the Bronze-Ranked Adventurers.

Without a doubt, these were the Silver-Ranked Adventurers. The highest-leveled among them was level 37.

"These are the Silver-Ranked Adventurers that will be taking you on for your Improvement Trial. You may exchange formalities and the like. Start whenever you wish." The employee introduced, as he backed off to another corner.

"So he's the one that wants to rank up from Silver to Gold right after straight away ranking up from Bronze to Silver? I'd assume he'd be some overconfident asshole, but he seems like the real deal." A young girl wearing light armor said, looking at King.

"Indeed. Most people who want to rank up from Bronze to Silver are either overconfident or skilled enough to make the cut, but he gives off that intimidating vibe only those at the Gold-Rank or above give off. I don't think he's being overconfident about ranking up, now." A middle-aged man with a quarterstaff said.

"Either way, it's our lucky day! Just as we really need some contribution points, someone wants to rank up from Silver to Gold!" A young man with red hair said, brandishing his broadsword.

"Now, now. Even though our teamwork can take down an average Gold-Ranked Adventurer, he doesn't seem all that simple." The middle aged man warned.

"Yes. But we're the [Purple Spear], one of the top Silver-Rank parties. We're not going down easily." A large bear-sized man wielding a large red battleaxe said.

"Still, don't let your guard down. It may be one person, but he's ranking up from Silver to Gold. Overestimating himself or not, it doesn't matter. Stay cautious. It isn't everyday a chance like this comes out of nowhere. Otherwise, we'd be in trouble if we don't get the contribution points within the next week." A man with black hair wielding a spear with a purple tinge on its edge said.

The middle-aged man with the quarterstaff walked up to King, extending a handshake.

"Pleased to meet you. Second-oldest member of the [Purple Spear] party, Heimlich, at your service."

King returned the handshake, while responding with a generic 'pleased to meet you'.

"Well then. Shall we start now?" The young man with red hair asked.

"Sure."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a quarterstaff was mere inches away from King's face, which was easily dodged. At this point, King just wanted to test out the limits of his currently level 58 body. Fighting a bunch of level 30-37 NPCs wasn't his idea of 'challenging', and neither did he need to take it seriously.

"Tch, missed." Heimlich clicked his tongue. His sneak-attack missed, although even if it did it, it would've done nothing to King's level 58 body. It'd have probably felt like a puppy's play-biting.

If King described it, it would be like he was playing with some puppies.

Aiming a punch at Heimlich's torso, King purposely slowed it down a bit and used less force in his attack. Still, to the middle aged man, it was like being hit in the stomach with the force of a fighter jet.

"Hack!" Heimlich managed to cough out as he was knocked back a few meters.

" _Ah, still too much strength."_ King thought. He assumed he would be able to at least put strength into his attacks, but it seems like he shouldn't have. He was level 58, so a normal punch dealt 5,800 damage. And that was a _normal_ punch, WITHOUT all the other damage-boosting perks he got. Adding in a 40% boost from his [Unarmed Mastery (Tier IV)], He'd deal 8,120 damage. With. One. Punch. These NPCs were level 30-ish, so they only had stats up to the tens of thousands.

It wasn't enough to instantly kill the person in front of him, but it would've knocked him out of commission instantly. And by out of commission, it meant down for the count, and for the next few days. Obviously, King didn't want that, so he toned down the hit.

"Heimlich! Cadburie, healing!" The man with the purple-tinged spear shouted, as a healer with blond hair started healing the fallen man.

" _Must be the leader."_ King guessed, very nearly dodging another blow, but from the young woman dual-wielding daggers. Every stab and slice was so closely dodged that it looked as if the attacks phased through King's body.

"Dammit, why can't I hit him?!" The young woman stepped back, dodging a high kick.

"Iris, Felix, use slowing magic, Acacia, Valei, shoot him from afar! Shuri! Back away, he's more than you can handle alone!" The leader (presumably) commanded.

Shuri, following her leader's orders, backed away from King. Suddenly, King felt a bit heavier and more sluggish, as two arrows flew towards his face. Grabbing them mid-flight, King dodged the broadsword of the red-haired man while countering with an elbow to his chest.

"Guh!?" As King was using the same strength as earlier, the red-haired young man was also knocked flying by several meters, but he was knocked out cold, due to the elbow hitting exactly at the solar plexus of the man.

"Roderick! Cadburie, start healing him!" The leader ordered. "Acacia, Valei! You two keep shooting! Iris, Felix! Strengthen the slowing magic! Benedict, you and I'll start attacking him! Heimlich, when you're able, join us in suppressing him! Same for you, Roderick!" The leader shouted at the awakening red-haired young man.

"For [Purple Spear]!" The young man with a purple spear charged in with a spear-thrust, which King dodged, only to come face to face with a giant battleaxe.

King dodged all of their hits expertly and with each hit so closely dodged that if it was off by just a single millimeter, it would've landed on King's body. Honestly, landing or not, it wouldn't have mattered. King was literally beyond what they could handle. Slightly more than 20 levels of difference, to be specific.

"Shuri! Look for weak-spots when we attack! Iris! Cast strengthening magic on us!"

Hearing the order, the cat-kin mage stopped channeling the slow spell and started casting a new spell. With that, King's speed was decreased from 20% to 10%.

As expected, the two Silver-Ranked adventurers's attacks grew in ferocity, speed, and strength, by about 20%, King assumed?

The previous dagger-wielding young woman was sneaking behind the two main attackers, sending a sneak-attack every now and then, which King blocked.

"He doesn't even have the usual blind-spots of a normal person! Even a Gold-Ranked Adventurer can't dodge them! Is he even human!?" Shuri yelled out in exasperation, as none of her attacks, or any attacks landed on him, for that matter. In fact, he had dodged every blow they dished out since the beginning of the trial!

King then landed a light kick on the bear-sized man, which sent him hurtling away more than seven to eight meters. In total, it would've dealt over 24,000 damage, had King used an ordinary kick. But the fairly light kick King landed on the man was half of that, which was about 12,000 damage. Even so, it was the strongest blow that King had ever used in their fight.

"BENEDICT! Shit! Everyone get back! His blows are heavy! Cadburie, start healing Benedict right away!" The leader stepped back, ordering everyone else to do so, as well.

"Hey, leader. This seems a bit crazy, don't you think!? A kick sent Benedict hurtling away so far! And he doesn't even look fazed!" Roderick, the red-haired swordsman said. In fact, all of the members in [Purple Spear] seemed to have lost all their motivation. They were giving it their all, and they were being toyed with like a cat playing with a mouse, but much worse!

"...You're right. As much as I hate it, you're right. But we need those points! You know what'll happen if we don't get those points, right!?" The leader shouted, which seemed to further instill depression into the atmosphere.

" _Hmm? What's going on? Is it a secret quest or something?"_ King thought. Usually, the adventurers he faced off against during a trial usually mocked him to throw him off, or were generally polite. This was something new. It could either be a quest, or a prelude to a quest.

"If we don't get 100,000,000 contribution points by the day after tomorrow... We won't see Iris again!"

...

 _"Really? That's it?"_ King thought. The plot was so overused that King had to resist the urge to face-palm. It was the standard 'I need to win or else this person I really care about is gone'.

Hell, there were more animes he watched with the exact same plot than he could count on both hands. Basically, more than ten.

A mage in the back was shivering, and King assumed it was the person called 'Iris'. She had green eyes and black hair, and compared to the other adventurer's gear, her robes and staff looked more high-end.

"You probably don't understand, but we need those points! There's no other way we'll be able to earn enough contribution points in time!" The leader then said, looking at King.

" _Oh, he's talking to me?"_ King thought. "Well. I understand you're in need of points, but it's stupid if you think those words are enough to convince me to admit defeat." King said to the leader.

"I didn't think you were nice enough to so simply admit defeat, nor did I think that you'd have given it away so simply, either. I just want you to know that..." The leader then got into a stance. "We can't afford to lose!"

 _"Sigh..."_ King sighed, before saying; "Well, it's none of my business. Anyway, this is getting boring. Let's end this now."

He got enough information on the limits of his current level 58 body, not to mention it was unimportant, seeing as how he'd be leveling up soon enough. He just needed the information so it'd be easier when he was farming mobs.

"End this? Do you look down on us so much that you think we're easy targets?" An archer with green hair and green eyes said. The bottom half of his face was also covered with a thick scarf.

"Acacia, don't be angered by him, keep your cool. We need to defeat him, by any means necessary." The leader said, before his previously brown eyes suddenly turned purple, ad his hair went from black to a shade of violet.

"Leader! You're using it!?" Roderick, who got up earlier thanks to the healing of Cadburie, said in shock. The leader was using his trump card?

"I may be in bed for a month to recuperate, but if we don't get these points, all the time in the world won't get Iris back!" The leader said, before shouting loudly, as a gust of wind blew everything back, except King.

" _Huh. His level rose."_ King thought, as the leader's level changed from 37 to 42.

When his attacks came, they were even faster- hell, almost ten times faster than the dagger-wielding girl. And she used daggers, whereas this person was using a spear!

"Hmm, I wonder." King said out, before purposely getting hit.

Ordinarily, his attacks were probably enough to kill all Tiger-level threats in real life, and maybe wound a few Demon-level threats. Now, the strength was probably enough to kill almost all Demon-level threats, excluding the really, really strong ones.

"!? What the-" The leader said out in shock, as his attack had done nothing to the person in front of him. But he didn't have enough time to ponder how before King punched him. With a normal punch.

"GACK!" The leader coughed out blood, while being sent back a few meters. It dealt less damage than his kick earlier, but it was enough to damage the person in front of him.

A strange thing was, the blood he coughed out was also purplish in color.

"No way, leader's trump card, [Battle Avatar] couldn't even wound him!?" The red-haired swordsman said, completely shocked. In fact, all of the party members were shocked.

They knew that their leader had a powerful ability which allowed him to gain strength massively, and he'd even be able to take down a weak {Disastrous Beast} all on his own! Granted, he'd be severely wounded by the end of it, but it was a {Disastrous Beast}! Something only those who were Gold-Ranked Adventurers or higher could possibly hope to match!

In fact, almost all of the party members believed that unless it was a really strong {Disastrous Beast} or a veteran Gold-Ranked Adventurer, their leader was nigh-invincible! Even against a veteran Gold-Ranked Adventurer or against a strong {Disastrous Beast}, their leader could at least put up a fight!

But the scene ahead of them shattered everything they knew. If he was toying with their leader like this, doesn't that mean that he was either going to be a really strong Gold-Ranked Adventurer, or maybe...

A Platinum-Ranked Adventurer?

Meanwhile, King was dodging the strikes of the injured leader like he was taking a walk in the park. The punch wounded him, but it wasn't as bad. The rest of the members of his party couldn't even do anything, excluding the mages and the healer. The two mages were probably casting strengthening spells, and the healer was, well... healing him.

The damage King dealt was immense, though, to the leader, and it took a while to heal it up. But before the leader was even fully healed, King kicked him in the legs, tripping him, and landing one final blow at his face, albeit a light one, to lessen the damage that would occur from the six times damage multiplier.

As the leader was knocked out, the other 9 adventurers were shocked beyond belief. He only took down one of them, but the psychological damage was immense. The one he took down as their leader, their sole beacon of hope against this monster in human form!

But even he was toyed around before being discarded, like a kid bored of his toys.

King looked at the others, and asked, "So are you surrendering, or do you want to continue?"

The atmosphere was silent, before the middle-aged man, Heimlich, asked rhetorically, "Do we have a chance?"

"At winning? No. At surrendering? Yes."

"Well, that's that, then." Heimlich sighed, before gripping his quarterstaff, and charging at King. The other party members snapped out of it, and charged at King.

 **[30 seconds later...]**

"Well, I passed, right?" King asked the employee. The other ten party members of [Purple Spear] were on the ground. Some were out cold, and some were just too wounded to get back up. The healer and one of the mages were out cold because King just knocked them out with a chop to the neck, whereas the others got the usual treatment of a blow to the stomach.

"Y-yes. Y-you've passed." The employee said, stuttering. The sheer display of King's power was a little too much for him to handle. "Please follow me to get your new Gold-Ranked Adventurer's Badge."

King looked back at the bodies of the members of the [Purple Spear] party, and saw that the leader was actually the first to get back up, despite the blows being the heaviest.

"N-not yet..." The leader was struggling to stand, and he was using his spear to support himself.

Suddenly, a gust of wind passed him, strong enough to nearly blow him away, as a fist suddenly appeared right in front of him.

"You couldn't even react to that, just give up already." King said, retracting his fist, walking away.

The leader was shocked. He was just wounded, but his reactions were still the same as always. But he couldn't even register what happened in front of him? Suddenly, a horrifying thought appeared in his mind.

"H-he wasn't even fighting us at full power...?"

The leader then dropped to his knees, as he realized... all they were doing was basically entertaining the fellow ahead of him.

"It can't be... Iris..." The leader said out weakly, as he scrunched the dirt underneath him helplessly. Even after using his trump card, and causing him to be bedridden for the next month, there was nothing he could do to win.

King looked back at the pitiful display of the leader, and sighed. Turning to face the employee, which started the latter, King asked;

"Can contribution points be transferred to other adventurers?"

"Eh? Y-yes, contribution points can not only be turned in for items and services from the Adventurer's Guild, fellow Adventurers can also trade their points with each other. Granted, it'd have to go through the guild, first." The employee answered King.

"Well then. I'd like to transfer 100,000,000 contribution points to the [Purple Spear] party." King said.

The members of [Purple Spear] whom were still conscious and were within earshot were all shocked when they heard those words, as they struggled to get up to look at King, trying to make sure he wasn't just making a joke at their expense.

"A-are you sure-"

"Yes. Transfer 100,000,000 contribution points to the [Purple Spear] party. Now just get me my Gold-Ranked Adventurer's Badge." King said, interrupting the employee.

"R-r-right away!" The employee sped off, leaving King and the dumbfounded members of the [Purple Spear] party.

"W-why did you-" The leader started, but King stopped him.

"I did it on a whim. Don't expect this sort of kindness from anyone else." King said, leaving the room before they could say anything else.

The wide arena was silent for a while, before the leader said a soft 'thank you', before falling to the ground with a thud. All the other party members also went back to lying down on the floor to rest. Even though King was generous enough to gift them with 100,000,000 contribution points, he wasn't very generous with his punches.

But despite their serious injuries, all the party members had a smile on their face.

Iris, the mage with green eyes and higher-end equipment looked back at the door where King left, and said;

"What a great man." Then, she passed out from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, King got his Gold-Ranked Adventurer Badge, and his title of [Silver-Ranked Adventurer] was quickly replaced with [Gold-Ranked Adventurer], which gave him a 50% EXP boost when killing mobs in dungeons or unexplored regions.

Immediately, King left and headed to the dungeon in the city to start grinding. He couldn't wait to see the capabilities of a 50% boost in EXP could do.

However, when he arrived, there was a certain difference. The first floor was full of adventurers and stores and the like, as per usual. However, there was a crowd of adventurers right outside the entrance of the second floor.

"Huh, what's the problem?" King wondered aloud.

Beside him, and adventurer heard King's question, and said, "What, you didn't know? The [Fifth Prince] is training in there. The guards are blocking the way so that we don't interrupt his training session."

"What about the other floors? Surely they aren't going to block everyone from entering the dungeon just because the prince is training on one floor." King asked.

"They are, actually. The prince is only actually training on the first level, so technically everyone else can freely enter and leave, but they're locking the entire dungeon out. It's just for the prince's safety. We're just waiting for the prince to finish training, so we can get back in." The adventurer explained.

"Huh, isn't that a bit unfair? He's holding out so many adventurers just to train." King asked.

"Well, he compensates well. Whenever he's done training, he'll order some court mages to cast [Mass Greater Condition] on everyone present in the dungeon." The adventurer explained.

"I see." King said, before leaving. The previous sentence reminded him of something, which was to go to the nearest Mages Guild and get some basic spells. He had MP. He had INT. However, he did not have any spells.

The first floor of a dungeon was really big enough to be considered a small city, as no longer than three minutes of walking, there was already a Mages Guild branch in there. In fact, there were branches of the Mages Guild, Adventurer's Guild, Merchant's Guild, and other guild branches in there.

As he entered the Mages Guild branch, the smaller branch was similar to the Mages Guild in the starter city, but King wasn't sure if all guild branches looked the same.

Walking up to the register, King asked the receptionist about buying spell-books. Thanks to the 'common-sense', which was basically the information which was basically common-sense in the game, King could avoid embarrassing himself like asking 'how to learn spells', 'how to cast spells', and 'how to crouch'. Okay, maybe not the last one.

"Excuse me, I'd like to buy some spell-books."

"Ah. Of course. What kind would you want? If you don't know, here's a catalog of spells we have." The receptionist then handed King a book, which had a bunch of spells listed out.

"I'll take [Heal], [Clean], [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration], and [Greater Protection]." King said.

"A-are you sure? [Heal] and [Clean] will only cost 50 gold coins in total, but the other three spells cost an entire 3 royal coins." The receptionist asked.

"Sure." King said, before taking out 50 gold coins and 3 royal coins.

"O-oh! Excuse me, you just didn't seem like an adventurer or a mage at first, so I didn't think you could- never mind. Excuse my rudeness earlier, I'll fetch those books for you right now." The receptionist said, her tone quickly changing.

Still, King couldn't blame her. Compared to everyone in the whole city, his dullness would make one compare him to a pauper.

After a short while, the five spell books King wanted were bought, then he immediately learnt the five spells he bought right in the guild. Well, it didn't matter anyway. Other NPCs were doing the same thing, why couldn't he?

Learning the spells, King could now cast a total of five whole spells.

[Greater Condition] was a spell which improved one's stats by a total of 50% for a period of time. The more MP one spent, the longer it lasted.

[Greater Regeneration] was a spell which increased the regeneration rate of one's HP, MP and ST by 50% for a period of time. The same thing applied, the more MP one spent, the longer the effect would last.

[Greater Protection] was an absorption of 50% of all incoming damage, up to 50,000,000 damage. Unlike the first two, the spell lasted basically forever, until a total of 50,000,000 damage was absorbed by the spell.

As great as the effects sounded, the cost of casting it was also ludicrously high. 10 minutes of [Greater Condition] would take an entire chunk of 500,000 MP, and it was almost all of King's MP. Same for [Greater Regeneration]. [Greater Protection] was fixed at 500,000 MP, since it had an infinite duration with a fixed absorption value.

Also, King learnt what the INT stat could do by further reading the 'common sense' of the game. The INT stat would determine whether one could actually learn a spell or not. A simple spell like [Heal] and [Clean] only needed 1 INT, from them being literally starter spells. The other spells, like [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration] and [Greater Protection] required at least 5,000 INT to learn.

Aside from that, INT also determined MP regeneration, like VIT determined HP regeneration, and DEX determined ST regeneration.

 _"For now, the best spell to use would be [Greater Protection]. Not only does it have an infinite duration, it would constantly absorb 50% of all incoming damage, up to 50,000,000 damage."_ King thought, before casting the spell onto himself.

Now, something he needed. Badly.

"Excuse me, I think I'll also get one ingot of {Mage's Gold}." King asked the receptionist.

As if it was nothing to them, the receptionist only walked into the back room before handing King an ingot of {Mage's Gold}, precisely 1 kilogram, enough to upgrade his [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]. Paying for it, King left the building.

After leaving the guild branch to find a secluded spot where no one could see him, King immediately started the upgrading process, and ended up with the upgraded product.

* * *

Item: [Superior Materialization Sphere]

DMG: 1~1,000,000

Tier: D-Class weapon

Value: 100,000,000 gold / 100 royal coins

Description: A sphere which materializes MP into physical objects, can turn MP into anything the user wishes, as long as the user has enough MP. A mental image of the object is required to materialize the item desired.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 C-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Magus's Platinum (1 kg), 0/10 Greater Mana Potion

* * *

As expected, the damage value had risen from 10,000 to 1,000,000. It was still lesser than King's maximum possible damage with his fists, but if he used sneak-attacks and head-shots, he would clearly outclass his damage from his fists.

"Well, I've done all I wanted to do. I guess I'm going back to the starter city now." King said out loud. He actually didn't plan on doing so, but seeing as the dungeon here was blocked for the time being, he may as well go back. Sure, he could wait and then get a free buff, but he didn't know how long the training would last. It'd only take him around a minute to fully regenerate his MP, so he'd lose out if he were to just stay for the effect. He could simply cast it on himself.

Leaving the city, King materialized the same supersonic jet, and left the city at speeds only possible if he reached level 70.

 **[1 hour later...]**

King arrived at the edge of the starter city. The endless grassy flatlands he saw already proved it 2 kilometers ago.

Landing on the grassy flatlands, King de-materialized the jet as he walked towards the city. Well, more like sprinted. His ST bar could take it.

Even when he just arrived, the first thing he did was go straight for the dungeon.

Entering the first floor, it was the same thing as the dungeon in [Aurum], where it was basically a mini-city. Every service imaginable was available in the first floor. Yep, even prostitution. However, in the game, prostitution was legal, which was why they could set up shop so blatantly.

Needless to say, due to that, Orbis Online was an 18+ game. Still, the same reason people could get alcohol before the age of 18, was the same reason he could see 14-year-old kids playing the game.

Walking towards the entrance to the second floor, King was greeted by... another crowd of adventurers.

"Dammit."

King left the city for nothing, then. Was this a synchronized thing or-

"Please remove yourself from the area! The [Third Prince]-"

"[Third Prince], turd prince. Move."

"Wha- How dare you! Even if you wanted to, you can't leave now! You're under arrest for smearing the good name of the royal family!"

Soon after, King heard a hard thwack, and the gruesome sound of bones and flesh creaking. Well, gruesome to the spectators, not so much to King. He'd seen worse during the aftermath of some Dragon-level threats walking around.

" _What's happening?"_ King wondered, as he walked to the front of the crowd to see what was going on.

In front of him, a ground of guards surrounded a young man, and there were two bodies on the floor, bent in an unnatural way.

"We have you surrounded! Come quietly or you'll suffer an even worse punishment!" One of the guards surrounding the young man said. "Harming a soldier of the city is enough to leave you in irons for more than a week!"

"Psh. Go ahead and try, you weaklings." The young man spat. He had yellow eyes and silver hair, which spiked out upwards on both sides.

"Why you-"

Not even finishing his sentence, the NPC found himself face-first in the dirt.

"What!? When'd he move!?"

"Over there-"

It was comical, really. A group of armed and armored guards were being easily taken out by a young man whom was unarmored _and_ unarmed-

Wait.

" _Unarmed?"_ King said to himself, as he realized the player ahead of him also used unarmed attacks. The difference was, King used direct and brutal attacks, whereas this person seemed like he was more of a martial artist. His movements seemed more streamlined, like flowing water.

" _It's really familiar. Isn't this what old man Bang uses? The Water-Stream Rock Smashing Fist, I think."_ King guessed. He only saw Silver Fang in action once, and that was when King was invited by Saitama to go against the Fubuki Group in a gaming tournament.

Granted, he dominated all of them in the game tournament. But afterwards, a giant spider-human thing attacked, and he saw Bang use his martial art to fight the spider-human hybrid for a while before Saitama used his standard one-punch routine.

It wasn't long, but it left an impression on King. This young man was giving off the same vibes as the old man, albeit, a little... how should he say, wilder?

"Heh. I should really thank those people that made the helmet. I was a little skeptical at first, but damn it's realistic. Although it was expensive as fuck, it's worth it." The young man said to himself, although King heard it well.

"With this, I can further perfect my moves and practice against various opponents. This is great- no, beyond great! I'll get in some more practice before I shock the world!" The young man said aloud this time, before looking at the NPC reinforcements that came rushing in.

The young man took a stance which reminded King of a wolf, before grinning like a madman.

"The hunt is on."

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter:**

The young man utterly decimated all of the guards, and even some of the adventurers that wanted to attempt to stop him. It was a massacre. Well, not really a massacre, since he didn't kill anyone, even the ones that tried to attack him.

They WERE left bloody and beaten, though.

Soon, there was no one left that dared to face the grinning psychopath.

"No one? Well, don't mind if I do~" The young man said, as he strolled all the way into the dungeon with no one to stop him. Then again, with that display of sheer combat prowess, who would even try to fight him? They'd only join the body pile. Well, except King. He just didn't care.

"Huh, that's pretty brutal." A monotone and almost bored voice sounded out.

Speaking of which, that monotone and bored voice sounded really similar...

"Oh, hey, King. There you are." Saitama said, patting King on the back.

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	5. Chapter 5: Good Friends

**Chapter 5: Good Friends**

* * *

The young man utterly decimated all of the guards, and even some of the adventurers that wanted to attempt to stop him. It was a massacre. Well, not really a massacre, since he didn't kill anyone, even the ones that tried to attack him.

They WERE left bloody and beaten, though.

Soon, there was no one left that dared to face the grinning psychopath.

"No one? Well, don't mind if I do~" The young man said, as he strolled all the way into the dungeon with no one to stop him. Then again, with that display of sheer combat prowess, who would even try to fight him? They'd only join the body pile. Well, except King. He just didn't care.

"Huh, that's pretty brutal." A monotone and almost bored voice sounded out.

Speaking of which, that monotone and bored voice sounded really similar...

"Oh, hey, King. There you are." Saitama said, patting King on the back.

Turning back, King saw Saitama, who was wearing the same thing as King, a plain grey tunic and white pants. Exception was;

"So you did. I kinda expected it, to be honest." King sighed, looking at Saitama's thick black hair.

"Yep. I'm never leaving it. Ever. I think I'll spend most of my time in here, too. Exceptions to eat and get deals from sales, of course." Saitama said, patting his head of hair.

"Come to think of it, you look exactly the same as when you saved me from that clawed octopus thing." King said, noting that if Saitama wore a blue tracksuit, he'd look exactly the same as he did a few years ago.

"It's only been a few years. Did you expect me to grow a mustache or something? Anyway, the game is good, I'll say that. If I didn't know better, I'd say I accidentally walked into a cosplay event or something." Saitama said, looking around.

"Oh, yeah. You're supposed to be able to choose some things from a box as your starter weapons and armor. Where are yours?" King asked, seeing as Saitama had nothing on him. He himself took a [Materialization Sphere], which was 100 points on his own, but did Saitama choose the same? Nah. It was highly unlikely.

"Oh, right. I chose this thing." Saitama said, lifting his hands to show a pair of brass knuckles.

"Wait, that's it?" King said. He saw some knuckles in the pile before, but they only cost 5 points!

"Yeah. I saw some other ones, too, but this one dealt the most damage, and cost the most. Exactly 100 points for 10 points of damage. Well, not like I care. I don't plan on using anything, anyway. I'm more used to using my fists." Saitama said, twirling the knuckles in his hand.

"Well, I should probably tell you..." King said, before explaining how unarmed damage was calculated.

"Seriously? That means at my level, I'd only do 1 damage?" Saitama said, looking at his fists. "Huh. Well, they did say equivalent to a normal person's strength."

"Yeah. For now, you should stick to those knuckles. I don't think you'll go very fast with one damage." King advised.

"Why not just train your body? If your strength isn't high enough, just start training, then." Saitama stated.

"Now that I think about it, that makes sense. I wonder what'll happen when you start training." King said. He was slightly intrigued, too. If the game was really that realistic, then how would training one's body affect one's stats?

"Eh, whatever. I wanna try fighting something." Saitama said, with a rare face of excitement.

"Alright. You go do what you want in the dungeon. I'll go look for that guy earlier." King said, looking at Saitama entering the dungeon with a face of anticipation.

" _Heh. Too strong to the point you'd need to play games for excitement. That sounds nice."_ King thought. Unlike Saitama, whom grew strong to fight, King just wanted to be strong so he could defend himself from other threats. If he didn't have his hero title, he'd just run away like everyone else. But he had a 'World's Strongest Man' and 'S-Class Hero' tag on him, so he couldn't just run, even if he wanted to.

Speaking of which, he wanted to find that young man from earlier. He reminded him of Silver Fang, and although it might be a long-shot, he wanted to see if they had any correlation between them. But before that...

Walking into the dungeon, King went straight to the seventh floor and started farming.

As expected, the 50% increase in EXP gain was more than just amazing, but rather, it was a complete godsend to King. Within 30 minutes, he already broke through from level 58 to level 60.

At this stage, his current stats were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 60

Title: [Gold-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 900,000/900,000 ([600,000] x1.5)

MP: 446,000/900,000 ([600,000] x1.5)

ST: 900,000/900,000 ([600,000] x1.5)

STR: 9,000 ([6,000] x1.5)

VIT: 9,000 ([6,000] x1.5)

INT: 9,000 ([6,000] x1.5)

DEX: 9,000 ([6,000] x1.5)

LCK: 9,000 ([6,000] x1.5)

Job Class: None

(Spells)

Active: [Heal], [Clean]

Passive: [Greater Protection], [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration]

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement II], [Vital Strikes III], [Stunning Blow II], [Sense Surroundings II]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning V], [Hunter's Grace V], [Knockout Blow II], [Bloody Battler], [Killing Spree], [Precise Movements II], [Tireless Juggernaut II], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000})], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {14,344/1,000,000})], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier IV: 320,660,850/1,000,000,000})]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

EXP: 59,330,290/120,000,000

* * *

"I'm already level 60. If this keeps up, I'll be level 100 in no-time." King said, absolutely elated. A 50% EXP bonus was truly just the thing he needed to level up faster. Ever since he forbade himself from using the [Superior Materialization Sphere], his speed of farming slowed by quite some amount, but with the 50% EXP bonus, it continued to grow back at a rapid pace.

Not to mention, due to him using [Greater Condition] on himself every ten minutes, he would have a constant 1.5 times multiplier on his stats. It only took him around 10 minutes to get back all his MP, and with [Greater Regeneration] active, it only took him 5 minutes. Basically, if he was casting it on himself and only himself, he would permanently have a 1.5 times multiplier on his stats and recovery.

[Greater Protection] was slightly worthless since King always tries to never get hit, but still, it was a good insurance. Even if he did accidentally get hit by a {Cataclysmic Beast}, he could definitely take a bit more punishment, 50% more, to be exact. 50 million damage was a lot, and the mob'll have to deal all that in order to start hurting King a full 100% of the damage they would deal.

"I guess I can start hunting for {Cataclysmic Beasts}." King said to himself, before remembering what he wanted to do. "Ah, right. That young man."

King then went straight for the first floor, and activated his newly-acquired skill, [Sense Surroundings]. Due to him wanting to utilize his sneak-attack bonuses, King would use ambushes, which apparently worked. And for that, King would often hide behind walls to tell if there were any enemies behind the wall he could sneakily attack to fully maximize his damage.

After a while, it gave King a new skill, which was [Sense Surroundings], At the first tier, King could sense up to ten meters, and could detect movement from behind walls, and sounds were magnified by 10 times, making them clearer for King. When he used it so often, it upgraded to the second tier, and King could sense up to twenty meters, detect movement, sounds and smells, and King could even tell the levels of the mobs.

And for now, King could keep it permanently active due to the increased regeneration from [Greater Regeneration]. Even without it, it'd take a long time to drain it up. King's ST bar was the hardest to drain, with his perks and all.

Also, King discovered a new thing.

(Spells), being magic and all, drained MP. But (Skills) always, always, ALWAYS, only drained ST. Well, at least, all of his current skills only drained ST. All his active ones, anyway. Passive ones were passive, as per the name said.

(Spells), active or passive, would drain MP. They were spells, after all.

Anyway, King went back to the first floor to see if he could find that young man earlier. He didn't seem to have bothered hiding his level, which was a rather ordinary number, at level 8. Despite that, he managed to take down level 10 guards like nothing.

Even so, if it came to fighting him, King wouldn't be worried. He was already level 60, after all. Still, if he could, he'd prefer if he'd be able to avoid violence. He just wanted to ask him something, that was all.

Still, the chances of the person being on the first floor was rather slim. If he was strong enough to take out level 10 guards at level 8, he'd probably be on the second floor. There would be no chance of him being on the third floor, however. Those were level 20-30, and he didn't believe that he could even survive there. He was level 8, and if he could fight level 20-30 mobs, that'd be too OP.

...now that he thought about it, it sounds exactly like what a user of the Water-Stream Rock Smashing Fist could do.

"Still, I'll start searching from the first floor to the third floor-" King said, and then a loud 'bang' was heard. Turning to look in the direction of the sound, he could see three presences on the other side of the wall.

"Level 5, level 8, and level 43. That's probably who I'm looking for." King said to himself, before moving around the wall to see the silver-haired young man, a young boy who looks around 12, and a middle-aged man wearing level 40 armor.

As King spotted them, the young man had been blown away, and flew right past King.

"State your employer, assassin! Who are you and why do you want the young prince's life!?" The middle-aged man asked, holding up a spear and shield.

"Hehehehe... I don't have no employer, nor do I wanna kill the kid. But you... you'll make my martial art improve leaps and bounds!" The young man said, a trace of eagerness in his eyes. Although, King could see that his health was dipping into the reds and a few stab wounds on him, from the spear the middle-aged man was using.

Then, the young man noticed King. "Huh? You're-"

"Wait up, let me handle this." King said, walking towards the middle-aged man. This was a misunderstanding, and if he didn't clear it up soon enough, the young man might end up dead. Sure, it wasn't a real death, but the guy'll lose EXP, and that was bad.

"Who're you!? Are you working with him!?" The middle-aged man said, wary of King. The sudden appearance of King was indeed suspicious.

"Now, now. This is a little misunderstanding. How about we-" King wanted to intervene, but the man had already shot his spear forward.

"Take this!" The man said, jabbing his spear forward.

Then, King did something that shocked everyone.

He grabbed the spear with his bare hands, as if it was nothing to him.

"Look, like I said, it's a simple misunderstanding-"

Dodging a kick, King sighed before smacking the spear out of the hands of the middle-aged man.

"I said-"

And King ducked to avoid the punch coming straight to his face.

"Okay. This isn't working." King sighed, before landing a light punch, which sent the man backwards over three meters, colliding with the wall.

"Lord Reginald!" The young boy, who was wearing light leather armor rushed to the man.

"Y-your highness! Please run! I don't think- _hack-_ I'll...I'll be able to hold him off!" The man said, taking out a short-sword on his back.

"Look. Can you at least pay attention to what I'm saying-" King continued, but it looked like he was being ignored.

"No! I'm not leaving you! If we're running, we run away together!" The young boy said, tears in his eyes.

"Your highness! Escape now-" The middle aged man coughed up blood.

"Lord Reginald! Uncle Reginald!" The young boy cried.

"Listen to me! You need to inform the guards! Get to safety!" The middle-aged man said, struggling to get up, as the hand that was wielding his short-sword was already trembling.

"Can you at least-" King started, but was still ignored.

"Uncle Reginald! I don't wanna leave you! I don't wanna!" The young boy hugged the middle-aged man, refusing to leave.

"Dammit, boy, just leave! How'll I face your father in the Aether if you die!?" The middle-aged man tried to push the prince off, but he wouldn't budge.

"You're- _sniff,_ you're the only one I can trust! Don't leave me alone!"

"Kana, just go! You need to survive!"

"UNCLE REGINALD!"

"KANA!"

And at this point, King couldn't take it anymore.

"WOULD IT KILL THE BOTH OF YOU TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN TO ME FOR FIVE SECONDS!?"

Shocking the other three in the vicinity with his outburst, King sighed after seeing that he got their attention, for once.

"Like I said, this is a misunderstanding. He has no intention of killing the both of you, and neither do I. If I wanted to, the two of you'll already be dead." King explained.

Walking towards the white-haired young man, King extended a hand. "Here, let me give you a hand."

Pulling up the blank-faced young man, King walked towards the two NPCs, the fellow with the shortsword still on guard, and the younger child wearing light leather armor was hiding behind the middle-aged man.

"Look. We just want to use the dungeon as well. I could wait, this fellow couldn't. His purpose is getting in here, my purpose was finding him. Finished, end of story. Let's just pretend we never saw each other, okay?" King explained. "Also, there's another fellow in here with black hair. He's also just here to farm. None of us have malicious intentions, alright?"

"Despite so, you've violated the law by entering a restricted area!" The middle-aged man said.

"Restricted? The dungeon's for every adventurer's own use, it's a public resource! You can't just claim it for your own." King reasoned.

"For royalty, every part of the city can be claimed as their own, within reason. The dungeon was rented for 4 hours, and to compensate, we cast [Mass Greater Condition] on all the adventurers who wait! That's how we rightfully claim the dungeon as the property of the royals within those four hours, and is a restricted area for all four hours!"

"The punishment would usually be-" The middle-aged man wanted to continue, but was stopped by the younger NPC.

"That's enough, Uncle Reginald. They don't have malicious intentions. I'll allow them to use the dungeon." The child NPC said.

"But-"

"It's alright. I'll allow them to access the dungeon even when I'm training in here." The child NPC said finally. "In fact, just give them permission to be able to access the dungeon at all times, even when I'm training in here."

"A-alright, [Third Prince]." The middle-aged man finally relented.

"Huh. First time I see a kid having authority over an older man." The silver-haired young man that was knocked back earlier said. He got up earlier and started walking towards the three of them.

"Ah, you're that man that was knocked back earlier. Please accept our apologies- woah!" The young prince wanted to apologize, but then he was scared from how close the young man was from him. They were basically face to face.

"...nice body."

"Eh?"

"Huh?"

"Wha-"

The first to react was the middle-aged man. "STAY AWAY FROM THE YOUNG PRINCE! PEOPLE LIKE YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO EVEN BE THIS CLOSE TO HIM, LET ALONE-"

King shut him up by covering his mouth, but he was equally confused. "P-please elaborate?"

"He's got a nice form. Even at his age, he's been training well. His body's well-developed." The young man smiled. It looked no different than his sadistic grin when he was tearing up the guards earlier, but it was a true, genuine smile.

King and the middle-aged man both let out sighs of relief.

"Why? What'd you think I meant?" It was the young man's turn to be puzzled. All he did was praise how the young boy was training well. What was with their reaction?

"Know what, nothing." King said, before remembering what he came here for. He was distracted by the two NPCs and their excessive acting earlier.

"Also, I came here to find you. If you could come over with me for a bit? It'll just be a short chat." King asked.

"Funny. I wanted to say the same thing." The young man said, before grinning. Unlike the genuine smile earlier, this one was the same as the one on his face when he was tearing apart the guards.

Leaving the two NPCs, King and the young man had gone further away from them, and once they were more than 30 meters away, the young man broke the silence.

"Are you Rank 7 S-Class Hero, King?" The young man asked.

"Figured a player would ask that sometime soon. Would you believe that I was the S-Class Hero King, even if I said yes?" King said, shrugging. He prepared this excuse sometime. Seeing as people were able to manipulate how their in-game avatars would look like, most players would think that this was someone else who made their character look like King, and not that he was the real thing-

"Yep. Hell, you'd seem like a guy who'd get it immediately." The young man said.

"Hmm? Why'd you think that?" King asked calmly, but inside, he was slightly panicking. The guy ahead of him would fully believe that he was really King?

"I've heard of your legends. A man so powerful that he was called 'The World's Strongest Man'. Someone so powerful Dragon-level threats are nothing to him. Someone who could take down God-level threats. The three scars on your face even prove that. Everyone knows that you only obtained that after a world-shaking battle with one in the past." The young man said, grinning.

"Someone so powerful that could take down so many threats so easily would be obviously... bored. He'd be too strong he'd annihilate all opponents without so much as a blink. So what someone like that would do? He'd look for a challenge. And a game where you could fight, limited to an average human's strength? It'd be perfect. Too perfect, in fact."

"So you don't need to lie. Even if you say you wouldn't get the game, your face is too accurate to have been manipulated. Everything, down to the very last eyelash is accurate. The only way you'll be able to manipulate the avatar so finely... is if you never manipulated it in the first place."

"You're intelligent. Very intelligent. Most people would not think that someone that looked like King in the game would be the real King, right? But that's just how you want them to think? Am I right?"

King sighed. The guy ahead of him figured him out... NOT! The only thing he figured out was that he was the real King, everything else was complete and utter nonsense! What God-level threat? That was BS! He got his scars from a Tiger-level threat! Some octopus with claws! The one that Saitama took down, not him!

Strong to the point of boredom? THAT WAS SAITAMA, NOT HIM! He'd be perfectly happy with absolute strength strong enough to blow everyone away with one punch, he didn't want to seek excitement from fighting monsters, it was the complete opposite! He wanted NOTHING to do with monsters at all, or doing hero work in general! If he could, he'd like to have never gotten his Hero title AT ALL!

"I didn't think I'd be found out so soon." King said softly, afraid as though someone else would overhear him. "I hope you won't reveal this?" In fact, the reason he spoke softly was EXACTLY because he didn't want people to find out that he was playing! It'd be like real-life, all over again!

"It'll be fine. You can trust me!" The young man said smilingly. But on the inside, he was beyond happy.

" _S-Class Hero King. Perfect, just perfect! I'll be able to figure out your fighting style before I hunt you!"_

"Alright. I'll trust you." King said, patting the young man on the back. "Oh, right. What's your name?"

"Garou." He introduced himself. " _Garou, The Hero Hunter. The one that'll hunt you soon!"_

"Alright. Anyway, I need to go find my friend. I'll be going now-" King said, but then Garou interrupted him.

"I wanna come with. That okay?"

 _"King, the stoic-battle machine, has a friend? This is some good info! Now which S-Class is it..."_

"Huh? Sure, why not. You two can even make friends. He's starting out, too." King said, before heading towards Saitama's location. Unlike Garou, King sent Saitama a friend request, which he accepted, and now both of them knew their exact locations.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"Oh, hey, King. You're here. Who's that guy beside you?" Saitama asked, while beating the absolute shit out of a goblin. "Hey, wait, ain't he the guy that beat the shit out of the guards earlier?"

" _This is his friend? He looks completely ordinary!"_ Garou thought, scanning Saitama from head to toe, and finding nothing exceptional about him.

"Saitama, this is Garou. He knows that I'm actually King, but he won't reveal it. Since you two are starting out, why not make friends? It'll make farming easier." King introduced them.

"I see. I'm Saitama, nice to meet you." Saitama said, extending a handshake, ignoring the fact that the man ahead of him brutalized dozens of guards.

"Nice to meet you." Garou returned the handshake. He only hated heroes, he didn't have anything against common civilians, and he wasn't rude, so it's not like he couldn't just make friends. Not to mention, he was an important person. A close friend of King might know all of his trump cards and hidden aces to watch out for!

"Now I'll send you a friend request, too. Saitama, send him one, would you?" King said, and at the corner of Garou's vision was two friend requests, which he accepted. Don't get him wrong, he utterly hated every hero in existence, King included, but nothing was wrong about making friends for now. After he hunted him, he'd have probably finished his goal by that time.

King was the last, very last hero he was going to hunt, right after Blast.

 _"And then, I'll threaten the world as an absolute evil."_ Garou thought excitedly.

"Hey, hey!" Garou then awoke from his stupor from Saitama repeatedly slapping him on the back.

"Huh? Oh, I dozed off, sorry." Garou said, before asking, "Where's King?"

"Oh, he went off to farm somewhere else. He said he was too high-leveled for this place." Saitama answered.

" _Well, that much is obvious. This is a level 1-10 area, King's probably already heading for the third floor as we speak. I can maybe take down some level 20 mobs on my own with my technique making up for my lack of strength, but King had probably played for quite a while, and even if he was burdened by the strength of only an average man, King's own technique can also make up for his lack for strength."_ Garou thought.

"Speaking of which, I want to go to the lower levels, too, but I can't find the way down." Saitama said.

Garou looked at his level. Level 12. That was quite the number. It was higher than his own, but he should be able to easily defeat this man if he used his technique.

"I know the way. Let's go." Garou said, leading the way to the second floor.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

"Hell yeah, I leveled up again!" Saitama said, pumping his fist in excitement. The last Cracked Stone Golem was just enough for him to level up. "What're you at, Garou?"

"Level 17." Garou answered. At his stage, it was child's play to keep up with this guy. He had absolutely no technique, just rushing in, relying on pure brute strength to get the job done.

"Yeah! I'm still ahead! Level 21!" Saitama said excitedly.

" _Still, even with his pure lack of technique, his combat sense is astounding."_ Garou thought.

Despite using only pure strength, his instincts were almost on par with his! The second Garou sensed a presence, this Saitama fellow already noticed the mob, and started attacking it!

Sometimes he would dodge hits so easily it would seem as if he saw them coming from a mile away, but most of them time he'd get hit on purpose, to feel the adrenaline rush, he assumed. To think, the both of them were cut from the same cloth.

Both of them loved fighting. Garou may have gotten stronger for the purpose of becoming the ultimate evil, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy fighting. This fellow however, utterly reveled in battle. Instead of dodging hits he could've dodged, he took them head on, with an expression of pure joy, as if it was the most enjoyable experience in his life.

" _Even if I were to try teaching him some techniques, I don't think he'd even want to use it."_ Garou thought. He assumed the man in front of him lacked technique because he was an amateur, but no, he just didn't want to use any in the first place!

Hits that would be fatal, however, he'd dodge immediately.

"Oh, yeah. We should probably go lower down, now." Saitama suggested.

" _Finally. Maybe I'll be able to finally fight something worthwhile."_ Garou thought. The third floor was filled with level 20-30 mobs, and maybe the level 30 mobs might just be the thing he needed to start fighting with some degree of seriousness.

While finding the way down, Garou and Saitama spent time with idle talk.

"So even though that kettle-monster looked like a total pushover, at the time, I was wounded pretty bad so it was a rather tough fight." Saitama said, reminiscing about the times he was still training.

"I see. I know how it feels to fight even though you're wounded pretty bad." Garou said. He wasn't kidding. Before he was going to start on his hero hunts, he practiced by fighting people from the underworld like assassins, hit-men, underground martial artists, etc. One time after a rather large fight against some gangs, a large amount of people came after him because he wounded some 'son of Boss Zankoku', and while wounded, he managed to come out victorious, albeit covered in even more wounds.

"Still, I want to know something." Garou asked suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"...you ever fought King?" Garou asked, looking at Saitama intently for any signs of deceit.

"Oh, yeah. Plenty. 75 times, actually." Saitama said, recollecting all the times he lost to King. "...I lost all of them."

 _"75 times? I guess he isn't actually an ordinary guy, after all. Going against King 75 times? Even if they were all losses, who knows how strong he had to be to be able to even actually fight with him?"_ Garou wondered.

"...does he have any special moves? Anything powerful?" Garou asked.

"Man, going against him, you may as well do yourself a favor and surrender, if you're fighting him." Saitama shrugged. If he didn't play for fun, he'd surrender immediately if he were to try going against King. King always managed to goad him into playing anyway, however.

"But does he have any kinds of special moves or tactics? I'm just curious." Garou said, grinning. "Come on, we're friends, right?" Garou elbowed Saitama.

Saitama sighed, as he gave in. "Fine. But don't let him know, alright!? I'm still hoping I can win against him some day!" Saitama said, a rarely serious expression on his face.

"Aight. Hit me with it." Garou said, barely containing his excitement. He was going to learn some of King's trump cards and tactics!

"First thing you do is to always hit first, and dodge all his attacks. Make sure he's defending. If he gets on the offensive first, he'll screw you over with a combo so bad you wouldn't even be able to defend." Saitama advised. Whenever he played with King, he made sure he was the one to get the first hit. If King managed to even land a hit in, then the game was over, unless King took pity on him.

 _"So he's an offense-oriented kinda guy. I like that. Noted."_ Garou made a mental note.

"Second, watch out for his special moves. I always constantly hit him with as many hits as I can to just force him into defense, but if you let up, his 'Ultra-100-Gigaton Hyper Kicks' or 'Continent-Crushing Consecutive Strikes' would leave you half-dead." Saitama informed. If he even let up on the attack, the combos would shave off half his health bar faster than he'd realize. Those two were always King's favorite combos, although he had maybe dozens more at his disposal.

" _'Ultra-100-Gigaton Hyper Kicks'? 'Continent-Crushing Consecutive Strikes'? Those were never in the Hero Registry. So he DID have some secret moves up his sleeves. The sneaky bastard."_ Garou smiled. He was learning more and more, and he could think of a strategy to get the upper hand.

"Lastly." Saitama said, and his rarely serious face became even more serious, as Garou listened intently.

"Never. Ever. EVER. Let him finish the moves to complete his ultimate move." Saitama warned.

"He needs moves to complete his 'Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon'?" Garou asked. Even a five-year old would know what King's killer move was; a massive blast of pure energy concentrated into a beam of destruction powerful enough to rival a supernova.

"'Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon'? The hell's that? What I'm talking about is in a whole other ballpark." Saitama said. If he wasn't mistaken, that was the strongest attack in a totally different video-game, something about space-ships.

" _A whole other ballpark? A move that's so strong that the 'Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon' pales in comparison? Damn, S-Class Hero King. You've hidden your strength well."_ Garou inwardly praised. He had to admit, although he utterly despised all heroes, King was truly a monster among monsters.

"It's the 'Infinite Combo'." Saitama said with all seriousness.

"What? What's that?" Garou asked. Compared to all his other moves, this one sounded rather simple.

"Imagine some ordinary attacks. They feel like normal punches or kicks. But that's only the beginning. Each hit grows stronger and faster exponentially, and by the 50th hit, an ordinary punch turns into a punch that can destroy a galaxy and an ordinary kick can surpass the speed of light. And as far as I know? He's never actually kept going for more than 30 seconds, but those 30 seconds are more than enough. After 20 seconds, he's just having fun."

"The first punch feels like an ordinary punch. The next is twice the previous strength and twice as fast. The third is three times the previous hit, the fourth is four times the third hit, the fifth is five times the fourth hit, and so on.

"That's the 'Infinite Combo'. He can stop it whenever he wishes to, but if you ever get him to use it, he's not going to stop until he feels like it." Saitama explained word for word.

" _A volley of attacks that grows exponentially each hit? Can grow to the point he can destroy galaxies and go faster than light? King, I take back my words. You are not only a monster among monsters, you're a monster among monsters among monsters."_ Garou thought. That kind of strength was beyond the charts. But that was what made him worth hunting!

"But, you just need to make sure you never let him finish it." Saitama said. "If you see him strike three 'Ultra-100-Gigaton Hyper Kicks' in ten seconds, make sure he'll never launch another three 'Continent-Crushing Consecutive Strikes' in five seconds. If you do, you have ONE chance to stop him from using four 'Sky-Suppressing Earth-Crushing Punches' in four seconds. If you fail to stop him, then, well..."

"You're screwed."

Garou then went silent. He took his time to digest all this information. King didn't sound like someone who could take down a God-level threat. No. He sounded like he could toy with a hundred God-level threats all at once and not use 10% of his power! If 'Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon', a blast of energy that can rival a supernova, was not even worth mentioning before the 'Infinite Combo'...

How would he even try tackling him in the first place?

Garou was like an ant trying to scale a mountain. A mountain taller than Mt. Everest. It was Mt. King.

"Hmph. You want to try taking down King?" Saitama asked.

"...what's it matter to you?" Garou asked back.

"Give up. One person can't do it. He gives me plenty of handicaps, like only using one hand with the other tied behind his back, closing his eyes, etc, and I can't even touch him. I lost to him so many times that I became numb towards losing already."

"... so you want to give up?" Garou smirked. He felt as if he knew where this was going...

"Not a chance in hell. I just want to know if we have the same objective. If we do..." Saitama said, a small smile creeping up to his face.

"To taking down King?" Garou extended his hand.

"To taking down King!" Saitama responded with a handshake.

" _I didn't think I'd see King today at all. Much less..."_ Garou looked Saitama in the eyes while Saitama too looked Garou in the eyes, with fire blazing in both.

" _finding someone with the same mindset!"_

And as good friends did, the friendly handshake evolved into an arm-wrestle, which Saitama narrowly won. The Water-Stream Rock Crushing fist was used for self-defense, not for arm wrestling.

Meanwhile, King was off fighting {Cataclysmic Beasts} on the eighth floor.

" _Phew..."_ King blew out a breath of relief after taking down the Lesser Daemon. That was the strongest {Cataclysmic Beast} so far, and King might've been in trouble if he didn't have the extra 50% stat increase from his [Greater Condition].

Also, with the extra 50% EXP increase, King had leveled up from level 60 to level 68 after killing 22 {Cataclysmic Beasts} so far. His [Bloody Battler] and [Killing Spree] were also active, which made farming much easier. The maximum 10-minute mark had passed and so he got both [Asura] and [Rampage] statuses.

"Now, on to the next-"

A great roar sounded out, and it was two Lesser Daemons, this time.

"Well, at least I won't need to find things to kill." King said, as he activated his [Vital Strikes] skill and landed precise kicks onto the glowing spots, which almost immediately killed the two Lesser Daemons.

"Man, if this keeps up, not to mention a week, I might reach level 100 by tomorrow." King said, a smile creeping up his face. If he really achieved level 100, he'd be on par with God-level threats already.

Continuing with his killing spree of {Cataclysmic Beasts}, King was slowly but surely attaining the power he would absolutely love to have to ensure he didn't die from a monster attack.

 **[1 hour later...]**

"This is weird... Does it get even harder to level up now?" King said, puzzled. He was already level 68 an hour ago, but now, he was just level 72!

Checking his current stats, they were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 72

Title: [Gold-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 10,800,000/10,800,000 ([7,200,000] x1.5)

MP: 8,946,000/10,800,000 ([7,200,000] x1.5)

ST: 10,800,000/10,800,000 ([7,200,000] x1.5)

STR: 108,000 ([72,000] x1.5)

VIT: 108,000 ([72,000] x1.5)

INT: 108,000 ([72,000] x1.5)

DEX: 108,000 ([72,000] x1.5)

LCK: 108,000 ([72,000] x1.5)

Job Class: None

(Spells)

Active: [Heal], [Clean]

Passive: [Greater Protection], [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration]

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement IV], [Vital Strikes IV], [Stunning Blow III], [Sense Surroundings IV]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning VI], [Hunter's Grace VI], [Knockout Blow III], [Bloody Battler], [Killing Spree], [Precise Movements IV], [Tireless Juggernaut III], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000})], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {14,344/1,000,000})], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier V: 1,620,660,850/1,000,000,000,000})]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

EXP: 710,291,330,290/720,000,000,000

* * *

...that about explained everything.

" _When did the EXP requirement to level up shoot up so much?"_ King wondered, as he saw the massive figure of 720 billion EXP required to level up to the next level. A Lesser Daemon only gave like 500 million EXP, so he needed to kill what, another 20 of those? Usually three or four was enough for one level up, now it jumped up to around four times that?

"I guess I'll just have to become a Diamond-Ranked Adventurer." King said to himself. He was level 72, which was on the level of some lower-ranked Obsidian-Ranked Adventurers, so he'd rather be safe and just try ranking up to a Diamond-Ranked Adventurer. A Diamond-Ranked Adventurer was leveled 61-70, which King already passed. It was risky to try ranking-up to a Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer if he wasn't at least level 75. He didn't want to risk losing a trillion contribution points.

Anyway, he got enough equipment to trade in for contribution points, so ranking up to a Platinum-Ranked Adventurer would be easy, he was only short a few hundred million, after all. But he wasn't really sure if it was enough to get enough contribution points to rank up to become a Diamond-Ranked Adventurer.

If he were to turn one of these items into cash, he'd be able to get around 10 billion, and he had nine such items. If he wasn't wrong, he should need about 10 billion contribution points to rank up to become a Platinum-Ranked Adventurer, and to be a Diamond-Ranked Adventurer, he needed to have 1 trillion contribution points. So yeah... not enough.

"Well, better than nothing, I guess. I may as well just become a Platinum-Ranked Adventurer first." King sighed, as he prepared to leave for [Aurum] to take another rank-up trial.

Suddenly, King got a message from Saitama and Garou.

'There's a weird thing here. Come check it out.' -Saitama.

'King, we found something that might just pique your interest.' -Garou.

"Something interesting? It might just be some really-high leveled mob, but whatever. May as well." King said to himself. He had nothing better to do, anyway.

Heading straight for their location, King prepared to just tell them that what they found was probably just some high-leveled mob, or an item.

...what King certainly didn't expect was an altar filled with presumably blood, and there was a small reddish-black dagger atop the blood pool.

"I mean, it smells like blood. What'd you think it is?" Saitama asked.

"Dunno. But whatever it is, it's definitely fishy." Garou said, being wary.

"There's a chance it's part of a quest, so maybe we shouldn't touch anything yet." King said.

And as if it was scripted, King sensed some low-leveled presences rushing towards their position, followed by a group of slightly higher-leveled presences.

"Someone's coming." King notified the two, who got into fighting stances.

"No, we're not fighting them now. Hide first, it might be something else." King said, grabbing the two of them and hiding behind a wall.

"Sticking a head out might just be too obvious, so let's improvise." King said, before taking out a small mirror to reflect the previous room without being detected.

"Good thinking, King. Though I should ask where you got the mirror from." Garou praised King's quick-thinking.

"It's a drop from a mob, now keep quiet, they're approaching." King said in a hushed voice, as the three of them viewed the mirror.

Soon, the reflection showed two young children running towards the altar breathlessly.

" _*pant *pant*_ We're almost there! We're at the third floor now, we just need to get to the second floor! Some of the adventurers will find us! We can find mom! We can go home! Come on, we can make it!" A young boy said, supporting another, younger boy. The elder one looked like he was about 15, and the younger one looked about 10.

"Some kids? Don't tell me this is some kind of sick sacrifice-thing again? I've already seen plenty of these on many occasions." King sighed quietly.

 _"He's seen cults doing sacrifices many times? Even I've only seen this on two occasions when I trained in the underworld. King, you've really been to places, huh?"_ Garou thought.

"Someone else is coming." King noted, as apart from the earlier bunch of higher-leveled presences, there were another three presences with even higher levels which were coming from another direction.

"Now I'll tell you two first. No matter what happens, it's all part of the plan, so when I say don't move, don't move." King said to Saitama and Garou. "I mean it."

"Oh? The children arrived here? Looks like we didn't need to escort them, they were already destined to be gifts for the great one." A loud and thorny voice came from the directions the two kids came from. The voice was so thorny, rough, and horrible it was almost comparable to nails on a chalkboard.

"What the- get up! Quick!" The elder brother quickly tried to run away with the younger brother as well, but then they suddenly collapsed.

"Good sacrificial lambs don't run." The thorny voice became louder as a group of people wearing robes which covered their entire body were walking slowly from where the children were running from.

Seeing that Garou was about to make a move, King raised his hand. "It's all under control. Trust me."

"Now should we sacrifice the older one, or the younger one, first...?" The man in the lead with the thorny voice said, as he removed his cloak to reveal a grotesque-looking face that would make people wonder if he was even human in the first place.

Suddenly, an arrow whizzed past him.

"Stop! We've received information of cult activity here, we're here to put an end to it! Surrender now and you may be spared!" A man carrying a large great-sword said. Beside him was a lean figure that was wearing light armor. The red-haired fox demi-human was the one that fired the arrow.

"Oh? Adventurers? Good. More blood for the great one." The leader said, seemingly unfazed by the threat earlier.

Then, a ball of flame erupted from the young girl beside the adventurer leader, killing a few cultists.

"Hmph. I already knew that we can't reason with them. May as well just burn all of them!" The young mage said, as another fireball appeared on the staff she was using.

"Well, it was worth a try, at least. Capturing them would've given us 500 contribution points each." The adventurer with the great-sword sighed, as he unsheathed the great-sword on his back.

"Elena, notify Mizu and Anna, just in case. They should arrive in a few minutes, granted they didn't go off too far." The leader said, blocking a icicle attack from a cultist.

"Take this!" The fox-kin archer said, as she shot some arrows directly at the cultists, each arrow taking a life.

As they started fighting, King looked to Garou. "See? All under control."

"That doesn't matter. We should take the chance to rescue the two kids." Garou said, his eyes trained on the two children that were still collapsed on the ground.

"The adventurers would save the kid. It'll be fine." King reasoned.

"But we don't know if they'll get hurt in the crossfire." Garou said, about to leave, but then King held him back.

"I've an ability that'll keep them safe for now. Don't worry." King said. In truth, he already cast [Greater Protection] on the two children, and due to his [Greater Condition], he could afford doing that. Two [Greater Protection] spells were worth 1 million MP, but he currently already had 7.2 million base MP, and with [Greater Condition] active, he already reached up to 10 million MP, so he wasn't all that worried.

Only thing was, [Greater Protection] only absorbed up to 50% of damage, so it didn't matter how much it would protect them, if the remaining 50% was enough to kill them anyway, then there was no point in casting [Greater Protection].

However, the cultists ahead of him were only level 10 to 20, and even the adventurer leader, was just level 25. Another effect of [Greater Protection] was if the attack dealt less than 50,000 damage, meaning less than 0.1% of the total damage it could absorb, it would be directly absorbed, dealing zero damage to the target. Meaning, the attacks of the cultists and even the adventurers would be completely ignored.

Well, King wasn't very sure, but he was confident. At level 25, he himself could only deal 10,000 damage, and that was from the overpowered [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], which became even more overpowered, once it became the [Superior Materialization Sphere].

Long story short, King was fully confident that at that moment, unless it was himself, or if a level 40 appeared, no one could harm the two kids.

"An ability? You mean an ability you've already gained in the game? Cause if it's an ability in real life, you can't use it here, you know?" Garou asked to be sure.

"Yes, it's an ability I gained in the game. If I had the ability to protect people so easily in real life, my job would be way, way easier." King said.

" _Suppose that's true. King is known for being so destructive towards monsters that the cities he'd in are always in a horrible state after their battle. However, he's also known to prioritize the lives of civilians more, as no matter how bad the aftermath of King's battles were, there were never any deaths."_ Garou thought.

" _Unlike all the other heroes that only chase fame, King... not only do I respect you as a worthy hunt, I respect you as a person, too."_

The fighting went on for about a few minutes, and the adventurers, even with their lesser numbers, were having the upper hand. And through King's [Sense Surroundings] skill, he noticed that there were another two presences with levels near to the adventurers arriving.

" _That must be the backup that the great-sword wielding fellow mentioned earlier."_ King thought. Both presences were level 19 and 22 respectively.

After a fireball killed another three cultists, the backup mentioned, a healer and an assassin arrived.

"Ah, Mizu, Anna, you're here. We were just about done mopping up." The leader said, swiping off the blood from his great-sword.

True to his words, there were only 5 to 6 cultists left from the original 30-ish. Strangely, their leader seemed to have been doing nothing the whole time.

"Strange. The leader doesn't seem to be worried. Does he have something up his sleeve?" Garou said, looking at the situation through the reflection of the hand-held mirror King had.

"I dunno. Maybe he's strong enough to the point he doesn't care?" Saitama guessed.

" _Well, they're right. If I were him, I wouldn't worry either. After all..."_ King thought, as he looked at the cultist leader.

" _He's level 30."_

"G-great Priest! We're almost dead! Please take action!" A cultist said, pleading towards the leader. The whole time their members were being slaughtered, their leader was just standing around, not heeding the cries of his underlings.

"Hmph. Do you not see? This is a trial to decide the truly worthy! Only the strong are worthy to follow the great one!" The so-called Great Priest said, not even batting an eyelid when the head of one of his followers whizzed past him.

"Oh? Still so arrogant after losing so many of your members? I'd like to see where that confidence comes from." The adventurer leader wielding the great-sword said, raising his blade with one hand, pointing it at the cultist leader as a sign of provocation.

"You want to see where I get my confidence from?" The cultist's leader grinned, before taking off his cloak to reveal a large muscular body.

"I'll show you where this confidence comes from." The Great Priest said suddenly, before his body glowed crimson red, and the size of his muscles increased significantly.

"What the-" The adventurer leader didn't even manage to get the full sentence out, before the leader suddenly appeared before him.

Barely having enough time, the leader managed to put a basic block in time before a punch landed onto the blade, and sent the adventurer back a few steps. Despite the adventurer not having injuries on the surface, his hands were trembling due to the massive force exerted on his hands. Had he not gripped it so hard, the sword would've flown out of his hands.

"S-so strong!?" The adventurer leader said in shock, obviously not expecting the disparity in power. His followers were so easily dealt with, how come this guy was so much stronger!?

The adventurer-leader barely recovered from the first blow, before a second one headed for his chest.

"Leader!" The fox-kin archer said, looking at the blown-back body of their leader, not noticing the Great Priest was already above her.

"Huh, I was right." Saitama said, looking at the much-stronger Great Priest beat back all five adventurers.

"His level increased." King said, looking at the Great Priest's level go from level 30 to level 35.

"Huh? How can you tell?" Garou asked.

"For one, you can see their level right above their heads. If you don't see any, just think about wanting to see how strong they are." King said.

Saitama and Garou tried what King told them to do, and then, suddenly everyone had levels above their heads.

"I see. So the adventurer leader is just level 25, and the weakest of the adventurers is level 19. They don't stand a chance." Garou said, looking at the battle through the mirror.

"King, you're still level 10?" Saitama said, looking at King's abnormally low level.

Obviously, King had hidden his true level. He didn't want to end up notifying everyone that met him that he was already level 72.

"Oh, you can also hide your real level so that other players don't know your real level." King said.

Then, out of nowhere, both Saitama and Garou's level had dropped from 21 and 17 to level 1.

"What's that for? Let me tell you, if you drop your levels so much, people will obviously be suspicious, unless the both of you plan on never using equipment. Cause if you wear level 20 equipment at level 1, there'll definitely be people suspicious about your levels." King advised.

"What? No, we're hiding our levels for a... different reason." Saitama said, as his eyes darted towards Garou, as the latter did the same.

" _Did something happen between them?"_ King wondered.

"Also, your levels are only hidden when you don't attack. If you're attacking, your displayed level will be proportional to the strength of your attacks. Say, if you're level 20, and you hide your level as level 1, if you attack with the strength of a level 5, your level will be displayed as level 5, until you cease combat." King told them.

Truth be told, he had learnt this mechanic not long ago, either. He only discovered it when his displayed level of 10 changed back to level 65 when he was killing some Lesser Daemons.

"Lastly, your displayed level can never be higher than your real level, so there's no real point in hiding your level." King said.

"Seriously? Then what's the point?" Saitama sighed, as his displayed level went back to level 21. Garou also looked a little down as the display went from level 1 to 17.

"Still, why do YOU hide your level then, King?" Garou asked.

"Well, usually I'd just change the topic, but seeing as I can trust the both of you, I can just tell you." King said. "I don't want people to suddenly go into shock when someone is more than 10 levels ahead than the highest-leveled player currently."

"10 levels higher? Does that mean you're currently level 35, like that guy over there?" Garou asked. At this stage of the game, the highest-leveled player in the game was just level 25. Saitama was just four levels behind. But King was ten levels ahead? Wait, did he say... _more than?_

"So... what exactly is your current level? Surely it's not level 50... right?" Saitama said, looking at King.

King smiled, before the level '10' on his display changed to '72'.

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!?" Both Saitama and Garou recoiled in shock and horror, knowing that their current target... was already more than 50 levels ahead of them!? If King was a mob, the both of them would see a red skull display above his head. He was more than 50 levels ahead, for Blast's sake!

"Oh? Who're those? More morsels for the great one?" The greatly-winning Great Priest said, looking at where the sound of Saitama and Garou's shout came from.

"Dammit. Well, time for Plan B, I guess." King sighed, as he walked out. "You two want to try fighting him?" King asked.

"Of course." "Definitely." Both Garou and Saitama said at the same time, as they walked out.

"Three civilians? Run! Quickly call for support at the Adventurer's Guild! The leader is at least as strong as an Elite Guard! Call for some Bronze-Ranked Adventurers!" The mage who was struggling to get up said, looking at both Saitama and Garou.

"No need. We're your backup." Garou said, cracking his knuckles. Saitama was... doing stretches.

"This is no time for jokes! Quickly call for some Bronze-Ranked Adventurers! We can't hold him for long!" The assassin with blue hair said.

"Hmph. How great of you to offer yourself for our great-" The Great Priest said, before Garou suddenly appeared before him.

"Yo. All those muscles good for lifting, or are those just filled with air?" Garou taunted.

"Why you-" The Great Priest said, punching Garou. He felt the contact with his flesh, and relished every second of torturing the poor soul in front of him-

-but he didn't expect a kick straight towards his face, which was rather powerful, more than he expected.

"Water-Stream Rock Smashing Fist." Garou said out loud, looking perfectly fine even though he was punched by a person almost 20 levels ahead of him.

"Seriously? All that power for what? Just so you can smash things without augmenting your power, or is your brain just filled with mush?" Garou taunted.

"Hmph. That was a fluke, you think you'll still be standing after a few more hits?" The Great Priest said. "But this is good. You'll be a fine meal for the great one."

"Heh, says the guy whose punch barely hurt." Garou said, but he was hurting a little on the inside. His abs, where the Great Priest hit him, were trembling. " _Damn. Even with the Water-Stream Rock Smashing Fist, my muscles are shaking. His punches are no joke."_

"Fine, then. I'll sever your limbs before I present you as an offering to our great lord! As he relishes your horrified expression while he feasts on your insides, he'll reward me for such a delicious morsel to him! I, his most loyal follower, will-" The Great Priest said, but then he was interrupted with another kick to the face.

"Less talking, more fighting. 20 words or less." Saitama said, jumping back from the kick and getting into a basic boxing stance.

"Fine. I'll add the two of you as delicious morsels for the great one." The Great Priest said, parrying a kick from Garou while simultaneously dodging another punch from Saitama.

While the three of them were preoccupied, King was talking to the adventurers from earlier.

"We need to call backup! The cultist leader is way stronger than we expected!" The adventurer-leader said, carrying an unconscious companion of his.

"Now, now. No need to worry. They've got it taken care of." King said, pointing towards Saitama and Garou fighting evenly with the Great Priest.

"Still, we should try and get some Bronze-Ranked Adventurers down here!" The adventurer-leader reasoned.

"It's alright. Those two are equal to a Bronze-Ranked Adventurer already. This is just a bit of training to them." King pointed out. It was true, too. They may not be at that level yet, but with Garou using the Water-Stream Rock Smashing Fist, and Saitama being Saitama, they would be fine. Garou could skip ahead a few levels, and Saitama was still Saitama. Both of them working together was more or less level 30.

"Training? But what if the cultist leader gets away? We can't risk it! We're going back up to notify the Adventurer's Guild that the cultist leader is actually stronger than reported!" The adventurer leader said, preparing to leave, as he ordered the mage to carry the two children that were about to be sacrificed.

"Oh, that's okay. You can report that. It's just that there's no need to call any adventurers down here afterwards. Well, actually, you should. You can collect their bodies or whatever later on." King agreed. He just didn't want any adventurers interrupting Saitama and Garou's opportunity to earn EXP.

"That doesn't matter. We'll call backup to assist those two. We'll be back in a short while!" The adventurer leader said finally, before retreating with his teammates.

"Well, I tried." King sighed.

"Saitama, Garou, they say there'll be backup coming in a while!" King notified the two.

"What the hell? Tell them to screw off!" Garou said, dodging another punch as he retaliated by hitting a few of his vital spots.

"We'll be fine on our own!" Saitama agreed, as he redirected the kick and sent a punch directly to the Great Priest's face.

"Heh, how kind of them to offer themselves to the great-" The Great Priest started, but then was met in kind by a punch from Garou and Saitama as well. "YOU SHUT UP!"

"I know you guys want him to yourself, so try to finish him off in 5 minutes, alright?" King asked.

"Five minutes? Plenty of time!" Garou grinned, before looking at Saitama.

"Wanna stop playing around?" Garou asked.

"Sure thing."

Then, the two went back to fighting the Great Priest, but with renewed vigor and strength. Previously, Garou and Saitama were evenly matched with the Great Priest. This time, they were actually pushing him back.

"Heh. A good fight, but this farce ends here." The Great Priest said, as he leapt backwards.

Suddenly, the glowing red lines on his skin increased in number, and a small aura was visible now.

His level increased from level 35 to 40.

"Let me show you... true terror-" The Great Priest began, but then, King acted.

With a flash of his fist, the Great Priest was sent back so far that he hit the wall behind him.

"Hey, what the hell, man!?" Garou began, but King already started explaining.

"He grew from level 35 to level 40 again. That would be way beyond the capacity of you two." King explained. "That's why I weakened him enough for you two to keep up. He's back to level 35 again."

True enough, the level of the Great Priest had dropped from 40 back to 35.

"Ah, I didn't notice the level chance since we were busy fighting." Garou said, noticing the drop in strength.

"Hehehehehehehe… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Instead of noticing his loss, the Great Priest started laughing maniacally.

"You will be a delicious morsel- no, full-course meal! Your strength... she will love it!" The Great Priest laughed, before he ran towards the altar and grabbed the knife.

"BE SUMMONED, OH GREAT LADY OF THE DEFILED!" Then, The Great Priest plunged the knife right into his heart. But instead of killing him, a black substance foamed from the stab-wound, and the flesh started turning black.

"Being the great one's vessel... is my greatest honor." Those were the last words of the Great Priest, before his body dissolved into mush, and turned into a black bubbling puddle.

Soon, out of the puddle, a small figure appeared, which after a while, cleared up to reveal a small kid that looked about 10 years of age. What distinguished her from looking human were the two horns on her head, the abnormally long tail, dark-grey skin, and black eyes with red pupils. Oh, and demon wings. The demon-wings were a dead giveaway.

Besides that, her level was also rather high, at level 60.

"...who summoned me?" She asked, in a voice fitting of a 10-year old primary-schooler.

"That guy in a puddle." King pointed out nonchalantly.

"...where's everyone else?" She asked again.

"Dead." Saitama replied with the same nonchalance as King.

"...my followers are dead?" She asked once more.

"Just so you know, we didn't kill anyone. Some other adventurers did." Garou pointed out the dead followers, which were either cut in half, had arrows in their heads, or were burnt to ashes.

"...that's good." She said.

"You're okay with that?" King asked.

"...less work to do."

"Less work? What do you mean? Also, why do you speak in short sentences?" Garou asked.

"...human language, hard."

"I see... so why are you here?" Garou asked again.

"...asked followers to summon here. Promised reward. Now no reward needed. Can go find big sister." She said, chaining short sentences together.

"So where is this 'big sister' of yours? It's not right to leave a little girl alone without grown-ups." Saitama asked.

"...in dungeon core."

"I see...well, King, lead the way. You've probably already been there, right?" Garou asked.

"Actually, no. I've been trying to find the entrance, but I couldn't find it." King said.

"...big sister hid entrance." The demon-girl said.

"Ah, no wonder. Do you know where it is, then?" King asked her. He wanted to get to the dungeon core, himself. At least, he just hoped the dungeon core boss wasn't her sister. Or else, you know... it would be awkward if King killed her sister right in front of her eyes.

"...she gave directions." She said.

"Right, lead the way." King said.

"...why?"

"We can't let a young kid go looking for their sister alone. It's our responsibility as adults to escort you to your sister to make sure you don't get kidnapped or whatever." Saitama said.

"Can find her myself." She said, frowning slightly.

"Tell you what. You two keep farming. I'll just go escort her myself. One adult's enough. Not to mention, I've been planning to go there myself." King said.

"I guess that's okay." Saitama said, accepting it. It was a duty of a hero to escort a lost child to their guardian, but King was a hero himself, so it was okay. Not to mention, King was the only one who was actually higher-leveled than the demon-kid, Saitama and Garou were just level 20~ish, they may as well keep farming for now.

"Oh, and before you go, I want to make sure that you know about the Adventurer's Guild, right?" King asked.

"Yeah, we know about them. We ran into a few NPCs that were adventurers earlier, right?" Garou responded.

"Register as adventurers. An adventurer rank gives you extra EXP gain while in unexplored areas or in dungeons." King explained.

"Seriously? What rank are you at now then?" Saitama asked King.

"I'm currently a Gold-Ranked Adventurer, but that's only because I don't have enough contribution points to rank up. Ah, yeah, you need those points to rank up, as well. Forgot to mention." King said.

"I see. Alright, me and Saitama'll go to the Adventurer's Guild to register as adventurers first. You can go escort her to her sister." Garou said, as he left, Saitama following suit.

"Well that's that. They hadn't gotten their adventurer titles yet, and they've been farming EXP just as fast as I was." King said, looking at the departing figures of Garou and Saitama.

"So anyway, where do we-" King turned to the demon-kid, but then she was no longer in sight. "Ah, right. I was chatting with Garou and Saitama, so I didn't notice her going ahead first."

"Well, whatever. I'll just look for her tracks." King said out loud, before he realized that the demon-kid was floating, earlier, so she probably wouldn't have left any footprints. Her tail was abnormally long, though. There was a chance she might've left tail tracks.

Going in the only direction that she possibly could have went, King followed the plausible trail. When he arrived at a crossroad, King looked at the floor to find any clues, and as if assisting his efforts, King noticed a weird tail-marking on the right path.

"I guess here?" King said, going through that path. If worse comes to worst, and he completely lost her, he could just go straight to the bottom floor and look for tracks there.

As if by cue, King noticed more tracks, and when he came to another fork in the pathway, there was a strange marking on one of the pathways.

Soon, after the fifth crossroad, King received a new skill. [Tracking].

Activating it, King could see a glowing line on the floor. "Nice, this'll make my job much easier." King said aloud.

However, King noticed a small flaw after using it awhile. The glowing line slowly dimmed after a while, and after presumably 50 meters, the line disappeared, until he found another track.

"Well, it's not as good as I expected, but still, it'll be much easier to find her with this skill." King said. The skill was also cheap, as it barely cost any ST to keep it active. He regenerated more ST per second that it needed to keep the skill up every minute. Meaning, utilizing the skill was basically free.

In 5 minutes, King already reached the last floor, and soon after, he reached a dead end, but the line was showing that he should go right through the wall.

"This should be that hidden passage." King said. Walking towards the wall, and instead of colliding against it, King phased through the wall as if it wasn't even there.

 _"I didn't even notice that. I guess I need to find a skill that allows me to see through illusions."_ King thought. If he encountered enemies that could use illusions in battle, he'd have a hell of a hard time. That was also why he always had a G*m of Tr** S*ght whenever he was playing D*t* 2. Saved his ass a few times against those annoying Ph*nt*m L*nc*rs.

"Now this is new." King said, as his [Sense Surroundings] skill had also changed to fit, seeing as there were more mob signatures in here, and twice or maybe thrice the mob density, as well.

True to that, the second he stepped in, there was a few Lesser Daemons just right around the corner, and the relatively larger signature was probably a leading Greater Daemon. He only fought a few of them before, and they were what, five, six times rarer than a Lesser Daemon?

Nevertheless, the density of the mobs in the unexplored region was unexpected. Previously, he'd already meet two or three Lesser Daemons every minute or every corner, now just at the entrance, there was around 12 Lesser Daemons with a leading Greater Daemon.

"Well, I want to continue looking for that girl, but seeing as she's a demon, she'll probably be fine." King said.

"I guess I'll farm for a little bit first, before I go to another city to rank up from Gold to Platinum, and maybe Diamond if I can." King said, cracking his knuckles, as the small group of Lesser Daemons noticed King.

For the next hour, the halls of the hidden part of the dungeon was filled with the echoes and screams of Lesser and Greater Daemons.

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter:**

"Oh, there's something else here." King said, picking up a spherical green orb that was inside of a Greater Daemon. This specific Greater Daemon was also slightly stronger than average, being level 80. Most Greater Daemons were level 75 and above, and Lesser Daemons ranged from level 65 to 70.

Speaking of levels, King reached the power he wanted to achieve, which was level 83. Converting it to real-life strength, It was comparable to top Dragon-level threats. Meaning, he had strength nearly equivalent to top S-Class heroes! Above that were God-level threats, and the only time something on that level ever happened, was when the alien invasion happened and decimated all of City-A.

If any God-level threats did appear, he could always count on Saitama-bro. Well, until he reached level 100, anyway. Then he could take care of them himself.

Still, King wasn't satisfied. He wanted to at least try reaching level 100, although that was on-par with {Supreme Beasts}, which were on a galactic level of power. At least, King assumed so. If the body of one {Supreme Beast} was enough to create a galaxy, then it should at least be galactic-level power, obviously.

Suddenly, the green orb King picked up glowed a greenish-yellow hue, and the figure of a female demon appeared on it.

"Hey, stop killing all of my troops! I'll let you leave without trouble now, but if you kill more of my troops, I'll... I'll...I'll send more of my Greater Daemons after you!" The female demon looked a bit over 16, and seemed more like a high-school student. Well, if you took away the grey skin, long tail, horns, red pupils, and black sclera. But apart from that, she looked like she was just an ordinary high-schooler.

"Big sister, who're you talking to?" A familiar voice was then heard, before the figure of the demon girl King was tracking appeared in the glowing orb.

"Ah, keep quiet! I'm trying to talk to this fellow! He's killing all the Daemons father gave to me!" The female demon that looked like a high-school student said, pouting."

"Who's that-" The demon girl that King was following earlier looked in King's direction through the orb, then froze.

"Huh, so you found your big sister on your own, after all." King said, looking at the demon girl.

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	6. Chapter 6: The Ultimate

**Chapter 6: The Ultimate**

* * *

"Oh, there's something else here." King said, picking up a spherical green orb that was inside of a Greater Daemon. This specific Greater Daemon was also slightly stronger than average, being level 80. Most Greater Daemons were level 75 and above, and Lesser Daemons ranged from level 65 to 70.

Speaking of levels, King reached the power he wanted to achieve, which was level 83. Converting it to real-life strength, It was comparable to top Dragon-level threats. Meaning, he had strength nearly equivalent to top S-Class heroes! Above that was God-level threats, and the only time something like that ever happened, was when the alien invasion happened and decimated all of City-A.

If any God-level threats did appear, he could always count on Saitama-bro. Well, until he reached level 100, anyway. Then he could take care of them himself.

Still, King wasn't satisfied. He wanted to at least try reaching level 100, although that was on-par with {Supreme Beasts}, which were on a galactic level of power. At least, King assumed so. If the body of one {Supreme Beast} was enough to create a galaxy, then it should at least be galactic-level power, obviously.

Suddenly, the green orb King picked up glowed a greenish-yellow hue, and the figure of a female demon appeared on it.

"Hey, stop killing all of my troops! I'll let you leave without trouble now, but if you kill more of my troops, I'll... I'll...I'll send more of my Greater Daemons after you!" The female demon looked a bit over 16, and seemed more like a high-school student. Well, if you took away the grey skin, long tail, horns, red-pupils, and black sclera. But apart from that, she looked like she was just an ordinary high-schooler.

"Big sister, who're you talking to?" A familiar voice was then heard, before the figure of the demon girl King was tracking appeared in the glowing orb.

"Ah, keep quiet! I'm trying to talk to this fellow! He's killing all the Daemons father gave to me!" The female demon that looked like a high-school student said, pouting."

"Who's that-" The demon girl that King was following earlier looked in King's direction through the orb, then froze.

"Huh, so you found your big sister on your own, after all." King said, looking at the demon girl.

"H-how did you..." The little sister said in disbelief.

"Oh, I just followed your tracks, that's all." King said nonchalantly.

"B-but I didn't leave any-"

"The tail marks you left on the ground was enough to track you."

"You found us by following my little sister's tail marks!? Pervert!" This time, the elder sister demon said, disgusted.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that she made it safely. Anyway, you say these Daemons belonged to you?" King asked.

"Ah! T-that's right! I-if you don't stop now, I'll send in-" The elder sister said, but then King interrupted her.

"No worries. I'll be leaving then."

"E-eh!? That easily!?" She said, in equal disbelief as her little sister.

"What? Did you want me to keep killing your Daemons?" King asked back.

"Huh? No! No! Please leave! Stop killing my Daemons!" The elder sister said, flustered. The chance to stop the mindless slaughter of her Daemons came so easily? She thought she'd need to end up sending some of her High Daemons. And she only had eight of them!

"That's why I offered to leave. To think I happened across a large amount of Daemons, only to end up not being able to kill them." King said, sighing.

As King was about to drop the orb, the elder sister stopped him.

"W-wait, why do you want to kill Daemons anyway?" She asked.

"Oh? Nothing, really. Anything is fine. It's just training, to me." King responded simply.

"So you only need a large amount of things to kill?" She asked once more.

"Yeah?"

"I think we might be able to work something out. Something profitable for the both of us. Come meet me at the dungeon core room." She said.

"Oh, alright." King said, intrigued. Did everything had a secret quest of sorts, or was the AI just that good? "So how do I get there?"

"Wait a minute, I'll send a High Daemon to escort you here." She said, before the orb went silent.

 **[15 minutes later...]**

A High Daemon appeared in front of King, and instead of attempting to attack King, it simply motioned for King to follow him.

Compared to all the other Daemons which looked like mindless creations, High Daemons bore resemblance to their creators, where Lesser and Greater Daemons were basically just meaty creatures covered in armor, High Daemons were made in the image of a demon with flesh and blood. Well, artificial flesh and blood, anyway. Not to mention, they were much higher-leveled. This High Daemon in front of King was level 85.

All Daemons were just creations of demons, anyway.

After a few twists and turns, they made it to an enormous door. It was those typical boss-room doors where the size and grandeur of the doors signified it was a boss room. Everyone that played any form of RPGs knew this.

Once he entered, instead of the standard empty large room most boss rooms were, the room was... how should he put it?

Overly grandiose, that's right.

There was a massive chandelier the size of ten Lesser Daemons hanging from the ceiling, a library corner, a... swimming pool?

Bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, art gallery, fountain, and more, the room was more of a one-room-mansion than a boss room.

"Ah, you're here!" A familiar voice called out. King looked to the source of the voice, and saw her with her little sister above him, on a balcony... enjoying tea. "Come up, then! We can't talk business if you're down there!"

Going up the stairs, King saw that atop the balcony, the table he saw was just the tip of the iceberg.

There were hundreds more of these tables, a large pond in the middle (don't ask him how it was possible, he doesn't know either), some living, breathing, swans? And a boat. Don't forget the boat. As if things weren't ridiculous enough.

And as the cherry on top, she had a bunch of Lesser Daemons waiting on her. It was a comical sight, really. The Lesser Daemons which were known as {Cataclysmic Beasts}, enough to probably level a country, were waiting on two girls, serving tea and playing the violin for her. Still, for a mindless automaton, the music it played was rather enjoyable.

"Come sit, we've got some things to discuss. You, pour him some tea." She said, asking King to sit down. She also ordered one of her Lesser Daemons to pour him some tea.

As King sat down, the elder demon girl started the conversation.

"So you say that you were only interested in killing things, and have no particular grievances with us?" She asked.

"Yes. I was just training, earlier." King answered.

"Some training. Looked more like a massacre..." She said to herself, but King heard it well enough. "Anyway, I have a proposition for you."

"Which is?"

"I'd like to hire you for an upcoming event of mine... there'll be plenty of things you could kill."

"Sounds good, but I'd like to know the specifics, if you don't mind."

"Sure, let me explain." She said, as she proceeded to explain what said 'event' was.

"Every 500 years or so, father hosts a competition among us to see who could lead an army better. We were allowed to use any available methods to either increase our Daemon count, make them evolve, decrease the opponent's amount, or even hire outside help, if we could."

"You're our outside help." She said, looking at King.

"Uh huh. Is that all?" King asked.

"Pretty much. Seeing as you're pretty good at killing Daemons, you're pretty good at fighting. Anything that you kill are not your responsibility, and you are free to kill as many as you like, as long as you're not killing any of mine."

"So we have a deal?"

"Yep! Here's to helping me kill my opponent's army!" She said, cheering.

"...big sister, can we trust him?" The little sister asked.

"It'll be fine! I mean..." She said, before turning to look at King with a stern face. "You're not working for my other siblings, right?"

"Don't worry. The first demon I've ever actually met was your little sister." King answered.

"How do I know you're not lying?" She said, looking at King doubtfully.

"No idea." King said, sipping his tea. "I have no clue on knowing how you'll know whether I'm lying or not, but that's not my problem."

"Eh? What do you mean, 'not your problem'?" She asked.

"What's my problem is killing any opposing Daemons, like you said. The terms of employment are yours to fuss over." King said nonchalantly.

"You know, you're kinda relaxed over this..." She said, looking at King strangely.

"Am I? Don't know, never realized." King said.

" _Saitama must be rubbing off on me. Well, that or I know this is just a game, and I'm frankly unconcerned about the well-being of anything in the game."_ King thought.

"Y-you know what, I'm taking a chance. But if you betray me or end up working for my other siblings, I'll, I'll tell father to kill you!" She said, sounding not like a feared demon, but more like an ordinary high-schooler that wanted her event at the Cultural Festival to be successful.

"Yes, yes. By the way, who is your father, anyway?" King asked.

"Oh, he's the Demon Lord, why?" She replied.

" _Daughter of the Demon Lord... you'd expect her to be a little more worthy of respect. Well, whatever."_ King thought. "And his name?"

"Its- ah, there's no point in learning his name. You won't be meeting him, anyway." She said, looking away from King.

" _Is she sulking, why is she sulking?"_ King thought, puzzled. "So now what?"

"Well, like I said earlier, we are allowed to decrease the size of the opponent's army before the actual event, so I'll be having you kill off some of my opponent's armies." She said.

"And how will that be done?" King asked.

"You said it's none of your problem, right? So stop worrying about it! Go drink some tea, read books, or whatever! I'll call you later." She said, walking off.

" _I don't understand. What is she angry about?"_ King wondered. The only thing he did was say that the only thing that was his responsibility was killing Daemons for her, why is she so mad about?

 _"Well, whatever. Outside help is outside help after all. I don't need to worry about a thing."_ King thought. " _If there's anything too dangerous for me, then I'll just use a_ _[Teleport Stone]."_

When King had money remaining from selling off equipment, the first thing he did was buy a few [Teleport Stones] for himself.

Hey, 2,000 gold was a pretty cheap price to pay, instead of a few million EXP lost. Gold was easy to earn. EXP wasn't. If he died, he'd lose what, 10 million EXP? Crushing a [Teleport Stone] would bring him right back to the spawn, and the spawn had a regenerative effect, too.

2,000 gold? Or a tens of millions of EXP. Hmm...

Yep, the 2,000 gold was a no-brainer. Selling just one piece of equipment he got in the dungeon would've been enough to buy him a few thousand [Teleport Stones]. Just one of those could save his life.

Well, unless there was some kind of stupid restrictions they had that only revealed themselves when it most mattered.

 _"I'll cross that bridge when I reach it."_ King thought, looking at the demon girl, apparently messaging someone through another glowing green orb.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

King was in the middle of practicing his combos, and yes, he had combos, seeing as how it actually made things easier for him. Linking everything towards a specific pattern made fighting much easier. And unlike other games where the character was dumb enough to continue attacking when the final boss was charging his super attack, King could interrupt his combos at any time to dodge the beam of death.

Also, since he was bored, he decided to just do some calculations for fun, and...

The math didn't add up.

Assuming that 1 STR was equivalent to a normal human's strength, then he had hundreds of thousands of times that level of strength right now.

But that wasn't enough.

At level 90, he should be on the level of {Apocalyptic Beasts}, which were basically God-level threats, so going with how things were going at this rate, he had the ability to combat God-level threats with 900,000 STR.

BUT THAT WASN'T ENOUGH.

1 STR was say, a normal human's punch. 900,000 STR should be around the level of a small building. You see where this was going, right?

THAT. WASN'T. ENOUGH.

A small building was a Demon-level threat, and Dragon-level threats could basically level entire city blocks. He should barely have enough to fight off Demon-level threats, much less DRAGON-LEVEL ONES.

Something wasn't right. If going by logic, he should be barely matching up to level 40 mobs, as they were as strong as normal Demon-level threats. But he was tearing apart Dragon-level threats with his bare hands. How did he know? Simple.

Before he went back into the dungeon, at level 60, King tested out his strength by casually punching the air, and it was enough to clear out an acre of forest. And that was level 60. If he got out now...

...King was getting off track. Point was...

" _The math isn't adding up, where's the consistency in the game!?"_ King thought. While practicing his combos, the thought kept bugging him, and he couldn't concentrate.

"Ah, you're finally here!" The elder demon-girl said, looking at the portal where her brother appeared.

"Heh, taking down a few hundred Greater Daemons? What kind of human did you hire this time?" Her brother asked. "Don't go crying to dad when you end up cheated."

"Trust me! He's over there, look at him yourself!" She said, pointing at King practicing his combos.

"So you're the guy that little sis hired, huh? Nice to meet-" The demon brother said, but suddenly, he felt a gust of wind, as in front of him, stopped short of just a few centimeters, was King's leg.

"Oh, didn't see you there. Sorry, I was preoccupied." King said, snapping out of it when he realized he had almost decapitated the boy ahead of him. Like his temporary employer, he was a demon like his two sisters, but the difference was that his tail was shorter and thicker, and his horns were longer.

"Jeez! You almost hit my brother! Be more careful next time, okay!?" The demon sister said, pointing her tail at King.

"Alright, alright." King said, before going back to practicing his combos.

"Hmph! It's lucky he didn't hit you, or else he'd be dead!" The little sister said, pouting. "Right, older broth-"

"Older brother?" She said, waving her hand in front of her brother, who wasn't responding to her calls.

After a while, he finally snapped out of it when his little sister started to poke his cheek.

"Ah, sorry about that. I was just... thinking." He said, embarrassed.

"So? He's good, right? Insufferable as he is, at least he's a good fighter, huh? How many Greater Daemons do you think he can take on?" She said, as if proud of finding such a good gem. Well, an annoyingly stoic and bland gem, but a gem nonetheless. Everyone only got 8 High Daemons for the event, and the person she found was almost as strong as a High Daemon!

" _Everyone gets 8 High Daemons, that never changes, but I get myself a pseudo-High Daemon in the form of this guy! I can't wait to see the look on Sulayn's face when she sees him! 'I'll be last' my horns! Sulayn's gonna kiss my tail tomorrow!"_ She thought.

"Yeah... he's.. good." The older brother said, but his thoughts were something else entirely.

" _W-what was that?! I didn't even recognize the kick heading towards me! I thought I could show little sis how strong the fellow actually is by maybe sparring a little, but he's way stronger than I expected! He might even be strong enough to contend with a High Daemon!"_

 _"If he didn't stop that kick from before..."_

The demon brother then looked towards King's practicing form.

 _"..I'd be dead."_

At that time, two feelings arose. Feelings only reserved whenever there was an audience with his father, the Demon Lord.

Fear and submission.

First impressions of people oftentimes had much more impact than even a week of experience with the person. It wasn't easy to change them, either. Same thing applied to demons, too.

For the older brother, King's first impression...

 _"He's scary."_

And so, without really doing much, King had already scared a person into submission unknowingly.

As soon as King looked the other way, the older brother immediately opened a portal and teleported away.

"Well, that should be enough." King said, as he stopped practicing. He had more or less wired his body to move according to what he wishes, and the awkward movement of a complete newbie was now gone, replaced by fine movement without wasted movement. Well, that part was probably due to his [Precise Movements] skill. But still, at least he had more experience in fighting.

"Anyway, I'd like to ask, when is this event held?" King asked.

"Oh, tomorrow. You know, I was panicking like crazy when you killed so many of my troops! But at least you'll be making it up to me this way." She said, turning to look away from King.

" _Ah, so that's why she's pouting. I killed off quite a bit of her troops."_ King thought. He finally realized why the demon-girl was mad at him.

"So, care to tell me the details now? Like what's the condition I'm fighting in, my opponents, and whatnot." King asked again.

"Ugh, fine." She said, taking out a scroll.

"Those are the rules for what we can and can't do, and also where the troops are fighting, and all that stuff. You knock yourself out reading them." She said, throwing the scroll onto the floor with reckless abandon.

Picking it up, King started to read through it.

The event, or rather, full-on war, would be held in a massive space. There were many kinds of terrain, such as forests, swamps, deserts, lakes, and more. Different kinds of enemies would be faced, as although the base army were just ordinary Daemons, one would be completely stupid to think that they could rely on just Daemons alone.

Suddenly, he heard a sneeze come from in front of him. Looking up from the scroll, the one that sneezed was his own employer, the demon girl.

" _Don't tell me..."_ King had a bad feeling.

"Come to think of it, I'd just like to know, what are the troops that compromise your army?" King asked.

"Well aren't you the busybody? Hmph! So much for 'leaving the details to me'." She said.

"We have Lesser Daemons, Greater Daemons, High Daemons, and maybe some other things."

"...such as?"

"Just ordinary foot-soldiers. Like orcs, goblins, some skeletons... do they matter? They're just there for free. Oh, if you'd like, you can kill those freely. They don't matter to me anyway."

King face-palmed. It was a very loud and resounding face-palm.

"Do you even have any intention to win this 'event'?" King asked.

"Win? I can't win anyway. Eldest Brother always gets first place anyway. I just need to be not last." She said, unworried.

Another face-palm.

"How often are you last?" King asked.

"Um... most of the time, but if I'm lucky, Sylvia might be removed before me, if big sister Cheshire chooses to take her out, first."

An even more resounding face-palm than the last.

"Do you even have any intent of performing?"

"No, not really. As long as I'm not last, I'm alright with any result."

And that was the very last straw that broke the camel's back.

"You know what, I'm going to ask you some very simple questions." King said.

"Hm? What are they?" She asked.

"What is the strongest foe that will be encountered during the event?" King asked.

"Well, there's Lesser Daemons, Greater Daemons, then High Daemons, and finally an Arch-Daemon." She said.

"Alright. A High Daemon was that one that brought me here earlier, right?" King asked again.

"Yep, that's a High Daemon."

"Are all of them as strong as that one earlier?"

"Yeah, they're all equally powerful."

"So how strong is an Arch-Daemon?" King asked.

"Well, I guess they'd be as strong as 10, no, 20 High Daemons?"

"Show me one."

"Um... okay?" She agreed, unsure why King would like to see one.

Then, another Daemon arrived in front of King. But unlike the creature-like Lesser and Greater Daemons, this Daemon was like a High Daemon, in which it was made in the likeness of a demon, but it was much more human- err, demon-like compared to a High Daemon.

High Daemons looked more like humans with grey skin and black eyes, as all they had was just the grey skin and black eyes. The Arch-Daemon however had horns and a tail, something that the High Daemons lacked. The only thing separating a Arch-Daemon and a real demon was that the Arch-Daemon didn't have red pupils, but instead a shimmering shade of light green replaced the red hue.

" _Level 90... that's pretty strong."_ King thought. "How many are given to every side?"

"Uh, just one. Arch-Daemons are hard to create, you know? Even my father can scarcely afford making 10 of them a year." She said, sweat-dropping that King expected there to be more than one Arch-Daemon.

"Just one? Well, that's fine, then. And how many of your siblings are participating in this event?" King asked.

"Well, there's Eldest Brother, Second Elder Brother, Third Elder Brother, big brother Ierius, big brother Jephim..."

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"...big sister Catherine, big sister Cheshire, Sulayn, Sylvia, and me."

 _"That is... a lot of demons."_ King thought. "So a total of... 800?"

"Yeah. 800 of us are participating. Why?"

 _"That... had to have been a lot of fucking."_ King thought, having a rather bad first impression of the Demon Lord. "Anyway, I'm going to ask you a simple question. Do you want to not get last place?" King asked.

"Well, duh!"

"Do you want to not be in the last five places?" King asked again.

"Not in the last five places? I'll be able to brag my tail off to Sulayn! Of course!"

"Well then. If you want to not be in the last five places, you are going to trust me on this one." King said.

"Okay, what is it?"

"All of the Lesser and Greater Daemons you have. Give them to me for training."

"Wait, wha-"

"All. Of. Them." King said, enunciating each word.

"...eh?"

 **[2 hours later...]**

"Big sister, this seems really bad." The younger sister said, worried.

"You kidding? I'm last most of the time, may as well give it to this guy for training or whatever he says it is. Compared to a High Daemon, a bunch of Lesser and Greater Daemons are nothing! He's almost as strong as one, so I don't lose! I just didn't think the Daemons father gave to me would end up... like... this." The older sister said, picking up a small eyeball.

For the last three quarter hours, King had been slaughtering Lesser and Greater Daemons in droves, and he was getting numb to the slaughtering. His level however was skyrocketing.

With endless slaughter, comes endless EXP. It wasn't actually endless, but it was enough to push King from level 83 to 90.

 _"If the amount of Daemons for every participant is this much, the EXP will be endless. I need to gain as much EXP as possible to rank up to the highest adventurer rank possible, so that when the event takes place, I'll be able to get as much EXP as possible."_ King thought. His current aim wasn't the Obsidian rank, no. It was the Penultimate Rank that was said to be the very apex of adventurer rankings. Logically, such a rank would be reserved for the level 90 and above, so King was getting ready to do so.

"How long more until the event?" King asked.

"Um, it's tomorrow, but to be exact, there should be another 21 hours-"

"Good. I'll be back in a while. I need to be elsewhere." King said.

"Eh? Wait, what-"

"It'll be fine. I'll be back in time for the event. I just need to be here before 20 hours." King said, crushing a [Teleport Stone].

Immediately after, he disappeared right in front of the two demon sisters.

"He went to the surface." The younger sister said.

"Well, he should be back by tomorrow. Well, we shouldn't worry. He's definitely strong enough to deal with all the Lesser and Greater Daemons, and maybe even a High Daemon. If we just go on the defensive, we might just be able to last long enough to not get last again." The older sister said, unworried.

"Big sister. You're too relaxed."

"Too relaxed? What do you mean?"

 **{The Spawn...}**

Appearing right on top of a large fountain area, King was back at the spawn of the starter city.

Not wasting time, King immediately bought a map to Orbis, and went on his way.

At least, that was the plan...

"What do you mean, 500 gold coins, it's just directions!" King argued with the stubborn map-maker.

"Knowledge like this doesn't come cheap, you know!? Not to mention, I'm the only mapmaker in this city that's been there before, so I dare you to ask someone else! And if you want to go to Orbis, you have to be rather rich, right!? So cough them up, or else no directions!"

"I just need the general direction! Like north, south, east, west, left, right, up, down, whatever!"

"If it's just that much, then it's cheaper. But 100 gold coins, understand!? No less than that!"

"Why you- you're a real son of a bitch, you know? 100 gold coins, now give me directions, old man!" King threw a pouch of gold coins onto the table, getting irate. He'd wasted an hour trying to find someone, anyone with any knowledge of Orbis, and now that he found one, he turned out to be an asshole that tried to cheat King of his money.

Granted, he was rich enough to afford it, but hell if he'd get cheated by a block of code!

"Hehe, nice doing business with ya. When you leave through the main gate, head in a north-west direction. A year if going by carriage, and maybe half a year on horseback. Knowing you have the money, you'd probably just pay for a Wyvern Taxi."

"Finally. I'm going now." King said, leaving the place immediately.

Like the mapmaker said, he could get Wyvern Taxi. It was an extremely expensive mode of transportation, where one could go at incredible speeds, nearing 700 kilometers an hour. However, it was restricted to nobles and royalty, as it cost 1,000 gold coins per hour.

However, King had something that made him extremely happy that he chose it at the beginning of the game. With it, honestly, he was pretty much invincible, if used properly.

With the cost of just one million MP, King materialized not a fighter-jet this time, but a private jet, and flew in the direction of Orbis.

One thing about the game was, when you logged out, your character is still there, just controlled by an AI whose only directive was 'kill all hostiles'. Which was why it was inadvisable to log out in a dungeon, as your character could die and lose everything. King however, was on a private jet created of his own mana. He was pretty safe.

Even at the speed of his private jet, it would take him around seven to eight hours to get to wherever Orbis was. He had nothing else to do, so...

Obviously, King logged out.

Taking off his Orbis helmet, King awoke on his bed.

"*yawn* I think I even skipped sleeping for a few days while playing the game." King said, feeling a little tired. Even though his body should be that of a level 90, he still needed sleep. And level 90 or not, King needed to recharge his mental energy.

"It's even night-time..." King said, looking out the window to see the pitch darkness. "I'll just set a timer for 7 hours, and get some *yawn* shuteye..."

That night, King slept like a log.

 **[The Next Day...]**

King awoke by the sound of the timer, and stretched his body.

"Ah~ That was probably the most restful sleep I've ever had." King said. "Speaking of which, let me test out something."

King got out of bed, and the first thing he did was cast [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration], and [Greater Protection] in succession.

"Well, casting spells seem fine. Now, to test out my strength." King said, before picking up one of his random knives, and...

Bent it with unnatural ease, as if what he bent wasn't a stainless steel knife, but a sheet of paper.

To accentuate it, King folded it in half, and was met with zero resistance, as if he was folding a piece of paper.

"Well, I guess I'm at least strong enough to do that, although in-game I'm strong enough to clear out acres of forest." King said, throwing out his bent knife. There was no way he could fix that anyway.

Taking out a level 40 dagger to replace the broken knife, King then took a bath, had some food, and went back into the game.

As he logged in, the familiar tugging of his consciousness would never have him used to it, but he was back on his private jet made of mana. Difference from before, was that unlike the first generation of the [Materialization Sphere], it had color compared to just pure azure blue, and also better than the one from the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere], where even though there was color, there would be a faint azure glow on the materialized item.

For the [Superior Materialization Sphere], the summoned item would be indistinguishable from the real thing, however they would still slowly fade away if far enough from the sphere itself. The distance was increased from 100 meters to 1 kilometer, though.

Anyway, King looked out the window, and saw that he was arriving in front of a massive tower which looked about... 20 kilometers high, putting Mt. Everest to shame. Well, it was a game-world, so whatever.

Landing about 500 meters away, King walked the rest of the way to avoid suspicion.

As he arrived, the tower was much bigger up close, and it was also overwhelmingly massive. It was not only 20 kilometers tall, it was also a kilometer in diameter.

Another thing about the tower? It was actually hovering 50 meters above ground. King didn't see when he was approaching in the private jet, but the entire mega-structure, was actually floating 50 meters above solid, level ground.

Right in the middle of the structure, there was a glowing blue orb maybe a hundred meters in diameter, floating above a fountain which was similar to the one at the spawn.

When King sprinted towards the sphere (to save time), he also discovered something else. The tower was hollow. The thickness of the walls of the tower was about 20 meters, but the rest was hollow, leaving empty space between the tower walls and the floating blue orb.

As King got closer and closer, he saw that he was regenerating at a faster pace, which was similar in effect to the spawn-fountain's effect. King had half a mind to check if the spawn at the starter city was the same as this one.

Arriving just ten meters away from the sphere, King's sprint slowed down to a run, then finally a slow walk, as he was right beside the orb.

"Hmm? There's a tablet here." King said, noticing a tablet floating above the fountain's waters. Actually, there were four tablets on each side of the fountain.

"Let's see... touch the orb... cast no spells... waiting time of ten or so seconds..." King read the tablet, and found that it was instructions on how to get to the city of Orbis.

First off, he'd had to come into contact with the orb, and he'd be transported to the city of Orbis through something called 'temporal warp'. During the journey he shouldn't cast any spells so that he wouldn't risk opening up a rip in the transport and get stuck in a spatial anomaly, and... that was it.

An extra to the tablet was that aside from the main language, there were different kinds of languages also carved on the tablet, which King could only assume were the languages utilized by the other races of the game.

Elves, dwarves, demons, and beast-kin all used the same language. Fairies had their own language, giants as well, and the other races... well, they had their own methods of communication.

King pressed his palm onto the surface of the sphere, and suddenly, instead of the familiar tugging of only his consciousness into and out of the game, King felt a physical tug on his body, and he was pulled upwards through the tower.

Twelve seconds later, King finally came to a stop, and landed atop a platform 500 meters in diameter, covered by a glass dome. Looking outside the dome, King could see the blue sky all around him.

Turning around, there was a tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel...

Was the legendary city, known as Orbis.

"A floating city? Not that original, but I'll have to give credit to the developers for managing to even programming a game world as vast as this." King said, as he sprinted towards the entrance of the city. Also, he had a few million ST to burn, he could use it to sprint.

As the arrived towards the gate, there were two guards on each side of the gate, making four in total. All four were wearing gleaming golden armor, and were also the same level, level 75. When King approached, the guards became wary as they went from amicably chattering among themselves to raising their spears and shield in defense.

"Who are you?! State your intentions!" The first guard asked.

"I'm a visitor. I'm planning to enter the city. This is Orbis, right?" King said, asking a question as well. This was a little unlike the so called 'legendary city' where hundreds of thousands of people visited every day.

"I-is that so? Sorry about that, then. We've just never received someone that wants to enter the city through this transport node." The first guard apologized.

"It's alright. May I ask, why am I the only one here? I thought there would be hundreds of thousands of people here?" King asked.

"Well, it's not that you're wrong, but rather..."

"This is an evacuation tunnel. We're not really supposed to receive visitors here." The second guard interjected.

"An evacuation tunnel?" King asked.

"Yes. It's an exit meant for evacuation of the city in case of catastrophic failure or invasion by outside forces, which was installed when the city first fell under siege by the Foreign Ones, about two thousand years ago." The first guard continued.

"Wait... so this is basically an emergency exit? This isn't an entry?" King asked again.

"You could say that..." The first guard said.

"But then..." King started.

"That actually reminds me, there was that one case where an idiot mapmaker came through here. What was it, five, six years ago?" The third guard said suddenly.

"Wait, did he happen to have-"

"He was wearing a red turban and on his waist was a rainbow sash. He was also blind in one eye, I think."

A face-palm attracted the four guards. As he removed his hand, King looked like he was about to kill someone. Well, he always looked like that, really.

"Why that little piece of-"

"A-anyway! You may enter the city anyway, but we'll have to notify the rest of the guards." The first guard said. King's expression was scary enough to intimidate a Manticore.

King's expression softened, but it was still intimidating nonetheless.

"We'll let you in when the message is sent. They should arrive in five minutes." The first guard said, as he took out a stone and started talking to it.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"Well, I didn't think someone else would enter through here. We put the instructions on how to enter there just in case, but never did I expect two people to actually go through from here." A man wearing larger and more decorated armor said, looking at King. His level was also higher, at level 80.

"He probably got his directions from that idiot mapmaker too, captain." The third guard joked, causing a chuckle.

"Well, I'd feel bad for you getting the wrong directions. You probably could've just went to one of the cities containing a transport node."

Then, killing intent filled the place.

"...there were transport nodes in the cities?" King asked, his stare intense enough to melt a ten-ton steel door.

"Woah, woah, relax! Slow down there! No need to get angry! I mean, I get how you feel, but no need to get all worked up about it!"

"Seven. Hours."

"Alright, I can't blame you on that. Anyway, let's proceed with the standard procedures." The guard-captain said, taking out a large green slab.

"Please place your hand here, we'll just be checking for any criminal records, transmitted diseases, curses and the like." He said.

King placed his hand there, and King's picture, age, health, and titles all appeared.

"29... no diseases or curses... zero criminal records... A Gold-Ranked Adventurer? You look more like a civilian." He said, surprised at King's status as a Gold-Ranked Adventurer. Well, King wasn't wearing any armor or carrying any weapons, so it was understandable.

"Well, my main purpose to visit this place was to increase my adventurer rank." King said.

"Ah, your city's branch doesn't have the requirements? I get it. A cousin of mine is also an adventurer. She's a Platinum-Rank, though." The guard-captain said, a warm smile on his face. "She's been trying to get to Diamond-Rank for some time now, it's cute how she tries so hard."

"I see. I'll wish her luck, then. Can I get in now?" King asked.

"Ah, of course. Enjoy your visit in Orbis!" The guard-captain said.

Entering the city, there were smaller pillars all over the place with people teleporting to and fro from the nodes, which further increased King's ire.

 _"Relax... it's all in the past. At least I got a good amount of sleep for today. Think positively."_ King said, attempting to restrain himself from mentally mutilating the mapmaker limb from limb for wasting his time.

Focusing on his primary objective, asking a few guards around, King quickly learnt the location of the main branch of the Adventurer's Guild. There was no need for further directions as the next objective, the Merchant's Guild, was located literally right next to it.

Within 30 seconds, King already arrived at the guild.

Walking in, it was the same case as the branch guild in Aurum. It looked like a cafe- hell, it's atmosphere was like that of a cafe, but there were adventurers whose ranks were higher than King's, and the contents of the conversation...

"So that one low-ranked city that had an overflow in their dungeon? It was actually a pretty bad case and they had to call in some Diamond-Rank Adventurers. I think a Gold-Ranked Adventurer almost died, with the strength of the monsters in the dungeon. The core's energy was also siphoned off by about three of the Bismuth-Ranked Mages, so the core went back to normal. The rate of monster production would drop, though."

"Hey, remember that [Terra Firma Amulet] I borrowed you? I need it back. I have a quest that needs me to kill a Rocklord Wyrm. Those bastards always shake up the ground. I can't even aim my bow properly."

"Ah, shit. I think I left it in the tavern. Wait up, I'll go get it for you."

"Man, I freaking LOVE those Crystal Moths. Not only are their shed wings worth a ton, they eat through cloth so fast you'd never notice! Well, Isabella never noticed it, anyway. She walked through the dungeon with 80% of her cloak eaten away, and her boobs and thighs which were usually hidden away by her baggy robe? Out for everyone to see. Only after her [Kindling Warmth] spell wore off did she notice."

"Lucky! Isabella's the rarest person you'll ever get to see to show skin! Alexandria's just a horny exhibitionist. Sure, we get to see a whole lot, but it'd be much better if she... you know... didn't get off on it as much as we do."

"Did anyone see my Lazarus Pin? I think I lost it somewhere."

Among the adventurers, King stood out the most, in the way he was the most bland out of everyone. All the adventurers were wearing high-end armor and robes, meanwhile King still kept his grey tunic and white pants.

Not that he didn't want to change clothes, but rather, there was close to no point in doing so, armor slowed him down, and the magician robes were uncomfortable to move in. His clothes were the only thing he had which allowed him to move with mobility.

Well, that and going commando, but he was a respectable person. No matter how much more mobile he was going to be, there was no way he was going to be butt-naked in a dungeon.

Well, if he managed to find armored clothing or something, then sure. He'll get that. As long as he was able to be mobile. He liked the effect of his [Hunter's Grace], after all. All he had to do was 'not get hit'. And that pretty much made armor useless. Still, armor was a pretty good thing to have.

His aim was to be the highest-leveled, but he didn't want to end up making a Glass Cannon build.

If he was comparing himself to mobs on the same level as him, with [Hunter's Grace] and [Killing Spree] active, he was practically invulnerable. One can't defeat what one can't hit, after all.

Well, there were things like that slowing spell King faced when he was fighting those low-leveled adventurers in Aurum, but he'd come to that when he needed to.

Either way, as long as he wasn't hit, he would pretty much have a permanent 70% speed boost. Adding on the 100% speed boost from the maximum speed increase of his [Killing Spree], King would have 170% increased speed.

Anyway, getting off topic, King went to the receptionist, and asked if he could trade in equipment for contribution points.

And like last time, King took out a huge pile of weapons, armor and accessories, and turned in all of them.

The difference was, contrary to the shock of everyone present in the guild when he did this in Aurum, no one really minded. After all, why would one be shocked about something which happened daily?

At level 75 and above, item bags were basically as common as stones on a pathway, and everyone could afford one, at the price of 50 Saint Coins.

Either way, King sold 9/10 of every bit of equipment he had right now, as he wanted to turn the last 1/10 of equipment into money at the Merchant's Guild, which was right next door.

"Thank you for your patience. The equipment earlier is all worth around 420,133,769,000,000 points." The receptionist said.

"I'd also like to take an Improvement Trial."

"Oh? Alright, then. Please hand in your Adventurer's Badge."

Handing in his Gold-Ranked Adventurer's Badge, the receptionist was surprised for a moment, before going back to normal.

"Please follow me." The receptionist motioned.

Following all the standard procedures, King then proceeded to utterly wipe the floor (gently) with all the adventurers in order to rank up.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"Well, that's the Platinum-Ranked ones out of the way." King said to himself. The other Platinum Ranked Adventurers which he had to defeat to rank up to Diamond-Rank.

"Now, can I take the Improvement Trial to rank up to Obsidian yet?" King asked the receptionist, who was shivering a little.

Even for her, she'd never before experience an inconspicuous Gold-Ranked Adventurer to be able to so domineeringly overwhelm 10 Gold-Ranked Adventurers, without any weapons or armor to boot, and some of them were about to rank up to Platinum-Ranked Adventurers, as well!

As if that wasn't enough... he did the same thing to Platinum-Ranked Adventurers as well!

Now, was he planning to do the same with the Diamond-Ranked Adventurers!?

" _Hmm, my level's already level 90, I wonder if it'll be enough to even get the Penultimate rank?"_ King wondered. But even so, that little bit of wondering was useless, considering even if King higher leveled, he still didn't have enough contribution points.

"A-alright. Please wait a while, I'll get some Diamond-Ranked Adventurers here." The receptionist said, a slight wobble in her usually elegant poise.

Honestly, though, if it was a receptionist from the previous cities, they'd probably be frozen in shock. Comparatively, she was much calmer.

In a bit, ten more adventurers followed her through the door, while the Platinum-Ranked Adventurers had already left.

"These are the Diamond-Ranked Adventurers you'll be facing today. Well, then... start at your own leisure." She said, heading back to her little corner.

"So he's the Gold-Ranked Adventurer that managed to beat 10 Platinum-Ranked Adventurers?" A female Diamond-Ranked Adventurers said.

"I guess that makes him as strong as one of us, now that he's a Diamond-Ranked Adventurer, but now he wants to do the same to us?" Another female Diamond-Ranked Adventurer piped up.

"Heh, that's a little arrogant. Unless he has the skills to back it up, though." A female Diamond-Ranked Adventurer chuckled, unsheathing her sword.

Come to think of it, all of them were female. Why were all of them female?

"Well, we're not losing either way! The [Crystal Flowers] party will never suffer a defeat, and we won't start now!" The (presumed) leader said, swinging her sword. In fact...

 _"Is it me, or is the entirety of the party compromised of females?"_ King thought. All of them were females! Also, all of them seemed to prefer the sword, as every single one of them were wielding swords.

Another thing was, just like King, none of them wore armor. Hell, all of them were wearing dresses! Were they adventurers or a group of nobles going to a party!?

 _"Okay. Calm down. Maybe they have some unusual spells in their arsenal. Don't underestimate anything."_ King thought.

"Hey, you there. Are you going to fight unarmed?" A purple-haired Diamond-Ranked Adventurer asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. I fight unarmed most of the time." King said. Although, it was true. Unless he were to face a horrifyingly strong opponent, like a sudden level 95 boss, then, and only then, would King use his [Superior Materialization Sphere]. Each hit was only going to do 1 million damage at most, but if he materialized say, a thousands spears which did 1 million damage each, it meant that King would do a billion damage.

Which was why he was going unarmed most of the time. Well, he COULD use spears, swords, daggers, bows and such, but he had no incentive. All of his skills were unarmed-centered. At least, all of them were gained when he was fighting unarmed.

"I see. Well, should we start now?" The presumed leader asked. King presumed she was the leader because, well...

Her sword and dress seemed the most expensive out of all of them. And following their theme, that may very well be the method of determining strength among them.

"I'm ready. You can go ahead and start first." King said. Although he had to fight 10 women, he wasn't going to get careless and underestimate them.

Not to mention, although he was higher-leveled, all of them had swords! King had his fists to attack with! And spells were always a wild-card.

As soon as he finished thinking, a sword-blade was just inches away from his face.

Dodging it, another three swords were thrust towards King, which he deftly dodged.

" _That's much easier than I thought. What levels were Diamond-Ranked Adventurers again?"_ King thought.

"Tch. He's looking down on us!" A rather short and pink-haired member of their party said, noticing that King wasn't even paying attention to the fight.

Then, they heard a sigh.

" _Right. Diamond-Ranked Adventurers are only level 60-70. I completely forgot."_ King thought. Come to think of it, he completely forgot to check their levels at the start of the fight. And all of it was... rather disheartening.

The lowest-leveled among them, the short pink-haired one, was level 64. The highest-leveled one, the one with coral-brown hair, was level 68.

"W-what's that sigh supposed to mean!?" The short, pink-haired adventurer said, pointing her sword at King.

"It's alright. I think I'll just end this fast." King sighed, before proceeding to quickly disarm all of them in the blink of an eye.

"W-wha-"

"I mean, I don't want to hurt girls. Can we just say that I managed to disarm them so I pass?" King said, asking the receptionist.

"...hello?"

Needless to say, the receptionist had collapsed out of shock.

Disarming 10 Diamond-Ranked Adventurers without them noticing was way, WAY harder than defeating them!

 **[30 minutes later...]**

"So, uh... Do I get my Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer Badge yet?" King asked a male staff.

"Ah, yes. Sorry about that. She's a newbie and never really saw an Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer before. In fact, that feat of yours might even qualify you as a Quasi-Penultimate adventurer."

"Quasi-Penultimate?" King asked.

"Ah, that's an informal term for an Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer who's strong enough to compare themselves to rookie Penultimate-Rank Adventurers. Though, they're nowhere near the real deal." The male staff explained.

"I see. Well, it's too bad I don't have enough contribution points to rank up to become a Penultimate-Rank Adventurer." King sighed. Well, he'd still be able to get a 80% increase in EXP gain with his title as an Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer.

"Eh? Ranking up to Penultimate-Rank is free, you know?"

"Huh?"

...

...

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"HAHAHAHAHA! So you're one of the few people who still had the misconception that ranking up to Penultimate Rank still cost contribution points? You've been living under a rock?" A gruff, bearded and stocky man said.

"Not anymore. Nowadays, as long as you can last against the Guild Master in battle for about five minutes, you pass!" The stocky man said. Hell, King was pretty sure he could be considered a dwarf... now that he thought about it, it was either he was a really buff midget, or he was a dwarf. The latter seemed more logical.

"Anyway, I'm Dorian. A Penultimate-Ranked Adventurer. If you rank up, you'll be joining us! If you're looking for a party, don't forget, the [Dragon's Forge] party will accept you anytime!"

"Of course he's strong. Not many people can say they managed to disarm my disciple's entire party within a second." A middle-aged and curvaceous woman said, putting her hand on King's shoulder.

"[Eternal Paradise] may only accept female members, but you've impressed us. Call us anytime you need assistance."

Meanwhile, King was maintaining a stoic visage. In all honesty, he really couldn't care less. All he wanted to do was rank up, and get that sweet, sweet 90% extra EXP gain.

"Ah, a stoic type! You'll be fast friends with Dural, I'm sure." The dwarf said, pointing at a man wearing full-plate armor and a large halberd strapped to his back.

"Hmph." Was his only reply.

"See! Almost the same! Both haven't said a word at all!" The dwarf laughed, while the middle-aged woman chuckled.

"Ah, excuse me, the Guild Master is ready now." A male staff-member of the Adventurer's Guild called out.

"That's your cue, new guy! We wish you luck!" The dwarf said, patting King on the back.

 _"Finally."_ King thought. He just wanted to get this over with. He'll pay attention to the story next time, maybe converse with these blocks of code. For now, he had a time limit of 12 more hours before that event of free EXP- the Demon-Lord's event.

Granted, 12 hours was a lot of time, but he needed to fly back to the starter city, too. If [Teleport Stones] worked at this distance, however, it would be fine.

Going through the door, King found himself in a large arena.

Just opposite him, was an unassuming, ordinary-looking person. In fact, he was wearing _the exact same_ clothing as King, exception being he was wearing a red tunic instead of a grey one. Nothing about him seemed to stand out in any way, and he seemed like just any random fellow on the street.

Well, his level of 90 said otherwise.

Needless to say, he was probably the Guild Master mentioned earlier.

So far, this was the only fellow King met that was even with him. Well, if it was before, then no. Thankfully, King broke through to level 90 right before he left for Orbis.

"Ah, you're that Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer that disarmed that [Crystal Flowers] party in the blink of an eye? Not bad." He said.

Looking at King from top to bottom, the Guild Master smiled.

"Well what'd you know. You're just as strong as me."

"Huh, how do you know that?" King asked, surprised. Throughout his play-through, albeit short and mostly focused on getting stronger, there weren't any NPCs that could discern one's strength at first sight. If so, that one unassuming bandit King met that one time would've run away as fast as he could.

"When you've reached a certain level of strength, or have trained long enough, you get an idea of how strong people are. Mages can detect the magical capacity and physical prowess of someone with their fancy spells, but I'm talking something... instinctual."

"You're the same, aren't you? We're evenly matched." The Guild Master asked.

"Didn't think there'd be someone who could do that, aside from myself and a few other people." King said, indirectly admitting it.

"A few other people? I'd like to know who, but you're here for a reason, and I'm here to do my job. So shall we?" The Guild Master said, unsheathing his unassuming-looking sword.

"You can start first." King said, uncrossing his arms.

"How nice. As Guild Master, I usually let the opponent start first." He chuckled. "Well, first time for everything."

Suddenly, a loud clanging sound was heard.

King had caught the unassuming-looking blade mid-flight.

"Here, take that one. I know that you usually fight unarmed, from the reports of your performance during your Improvement Trials, but humor me for a bit, eh?" The Guild Master said, taking out a similar blade from his item bag.

"I'm a novice with the sword, though. But it's fine. I'll humor you, then." King said, wielding the sword.

As soon as the sentence finished, the both of them locked swords.

The Guild Master started with a slash to King's arm, but was quickly parried. King thrust the sword forward to the Guild Master's solar plexus, but it was also easily parried-

Yet it was what King wanted, as he used the pommel of the sword to aim for the Guild Master's face, whom deftly dodged the blow.

"Novice with the sword? Don't make me laugh. Even those skilled in the blade wouldn't plan a counter-attack with a pommel right after a parry. The idea is simple, ineffective, and laughable, yet you managed to pull it off so expertly." The Guild Master said, his face showing a bit more seriousness.

 _"Expertly? I'm just replicating what I see on TV."_ King thought, parrying the sword blow that was aimed for his neck.

At this stage, both of them were just playing around, so King could afford to be distracted, albeit for very brief periods of time. It was enough for a few brief thoughts, though.

"Well, that's enough playing around. Should we get a bit more serious, then?" The Guild Master offered.

"Sure. But I think I'll stop using this sword. I'm more used to using my fists." King said, throwing the sword back to the Guild Master.

"I don't mind. I'll be using some weapons of my own, anyway." The Guild Master said, as he kept the unassuming iron sword, and pulled out another sword. This time, it was a level 90 one, instead of some junk one, like the iron sword earlier.

"Shall we?" The Guild Master said, looking at King seriously.

"Be my guest." King said, no longer playing around. He was properly on his toes, this time.

A split-second later, the Guild Master's sword was knocked out of the way by King's fist.

Dodging every swing of the sword with dexterous ability, King was no slouch as he was sending counter-attacks as well, which were being blocked by the sword-blade of the Guild Master.

Slowly but surely, within the flurry of attacks, King was slowly gaining the upper hand, while the Guild Master was getting pushed back.

" _I'm guarding against all attacks carefully while making slow advancements. This might not be very efficient time-wise, but hey, 5 minutes, at most."_ King thought.

But even though he was steadily increasing his rate of attacks, his advancement was slowly stopping... and getting pushed back?

Suddenly, the rate of attacks grew much higher than before, overwhelming King for a short while before he stabilized himself, and started defending against the attacks at a steady pace.

Slowly but surely, King was gaining the upper hand again.

The Guild Master was the first one to back away.

"You've managed to parry and dodge every blow I've struck at full speed and power, and even though I caught you by surprise, you're still pushing me back. I'm feeling a little embarrassed about that." The Guild Master said, coughing lightly.

"Still, I'll be damned if I lose now. You ready? I'm not sticking to just swordsmanship anymore." The Guild Master said, a rare glint of fire in his eyes.

"Sure. I expected you to have been serious earlier, anyway." King said.

The Guild Master then swept forward with a thrust so strong that wind blew in all directions, knocking over everything in it's path.

The power of level 90 was not one to be trifled with.

King dodged the hit and countered with a palm.

The exchange of hits grew, and it seemed like there was no limit.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of blows in mere seconds, the battle was still undecided. Until finally-

 **DING.**

The bell that rung once five minutes were up sounded. King passed.

Both combatants stopped right in their tracks once the bell rung.

"Time's up? Damn, I wish it'd have lasted longer." The Guild Master saying, sheathing his sword.

King simply uncurled his fists.

"Well, that's over with, and about my report on you?" The Guild Master said, smiling at King. "You're strong. Very strong. Hell, if you actually stopped thinking about dodging, you definitely be able to defeat me."

"Not to mention, I've been using my sword the whole time, and you've been going against me unarmed. You've even been dodging all my attacks while I took quite a bit of damage from you myself." The Guild Master said, rubbing his sore spots. King had been aiming for mostly the same places where it wouldn't hurt as much, but damage accumulated bit by bit.

"Thanks for the compliment." King said calmly. On the inside, he was sweating like crazy. _"Shit, that might've been the hardest time I've had dodging attacks since the start of the whole game. I guess he can be considered sort of like a boss, but damn, it was hard to dodge all of those attacks."_

"Looks like you've earned yourself more than just the title of 'Penultimate'." The Guild Master sighed. "The reason the rank is called 'Penultimate' is because you're second to only one person, and that's the Guild Master, me."

"But you're more than just 'second' to me. All others only have to last against me for 5 minutes, almost on the ropes. You might just be an equal- if not greater to me." The Guild Master said.

"I bet, if you had to fight me to the death, you'd win." The Guild Master said, grinning.

" _I mean, he's not wrong. If I used [Vital Strikes] and actually hit as hard as I could, I might be able to kill him in one hit before he noticed."_ King thought. True, though. The Guild Master seemed like he was fighting his damned hardest, meanwhile King was just trying to dodge all the attacks, and the only attacks he did send were non-lethal ones, only meant to push back, or lightly bruise. At most, injure slightly to gain an advantage.

If King wanted to kill him, he would've immediately used [Vital Strikes] and consecutively hit the vital spots on the head. It'd have immediately killed him, that was for sure.

"Anyway, my point is, you're more than just 'Penultimate'." The Guild Master said, before looking King right in the eye.

"Interested in becoming the new Guild Master?"

"Nope."

"...eh?"

"I don't plan on managing the guild or anything of the sort, the only reason I joined the Adventurer's Guild in the first place was because it was convenient for myself." King said. _"That, and I don't have time for management. I mean, I COULD do it, but that'd slow down my rate of leveling up. Unless accepting it would give me EXP for managing the guild, but I highly doubt that."_

"Well- I mean- I guess, well, _*sigh*_ I never really expected this. Everyone who had the chance to accept this always accepted it without question. I guess this is a first." The Guild Master sighed.

"I suppose the title does have a use, now." The Guild Master said, before pulling out a purple-colored metallic badge. There were only two words carved upon it.

 **'THE ULTIMATE'.**

"Congratulations, you're the first person in all 3,200 years of the Adventurer's Guild's history to achieve the rank of Ultimate Adventurer." The Guild Master said, handing King the badge. "Everyone else just accepted the rank of Guild Master, myself included."

"Thanks. But what about this badge?" King asked, taking out his Obsidian-Ranked Adventurer's Badge.

The Guild Master swiped it, and kept it in his pocket.

"You're the Ultimate Adventurer, now. I'll deal with the paperwork. Remember your title, and hold it with pride." The Guild Master grinned.

"Well, thanks, Guild Master." King thanked.

"Please, call me Percival." The Guild Master said, extending a handshake.

"Alright, Percival." King said, returning the handshake.

"Well, I'll spread the news later. Now, why don't we continue sparring? It's been some time since I've had so much fun." The Guild Master, Percival said.

"I actually have some errands to run now, sorry." King refused.

"Oh, alright, then. By the way, take this." Percival said, handing King a red gem.

Checking it's description, it read:

* * *

Item: High-Grade Warp Gem

Value: N/A

Description: A gem with spatial warping powers. Can transport one across great distances within the blink of an eye.

* * *

"It's a [High-Grade Warp Gem]. As long as you've been there before, and you have a strong enough mental image of your destination, you can transport yourself anywhere and anywhere, as long as it's not protected by strong spatial reinforcement spells." Percival informed. "There's only a limit of 1 teleportation per hour, and a maximum distance of around 25,000 kilometers. So if you're planning a trip to some far-away land, remember the distance limitations."

"I see. Thanks for the Warp Gem." King said. " _25,000 kilometers? Shit, that's enough to take me around Earth in two uses. Still, this changes my plans. I can now go directly back in just a use of this warp gem."_

"That's a HIGH-GRADE Warp Gem to you, but yeah, you're welcome. Usually we're only allowed to give these to the Guild Leader, but as an Ultimate Adventurer, you're more than worthy of this. I don't travel very often, anyway. Not to mention the Governor of the Emerald District gifted me three of these because I helped in uncovering a secret Foreign One cult that planned to summon another gateway from the Foreign Region back into the city."

"I see. Well, I'll be going now." King said, before leaving the arena.

"Well, I better get to the paperwork, then." Percival sighed, before going back to his office.

As King left the arena, the Penultimate Rank Adventurers were waiting outside the arena for him.

"Congratulations! You've been in there for around 5 minutes, so you've definitely passed! Welcome to the domain of Penultimate-Ranks!" The dwarf adventurer, Dorian, said.

"So he's the one that joined us? Neat!" A man wielding a spear said. "Nice to meet you, Henry of the [Emerald Monarch] party." The spear-wielder said, extending a handshake.

"Nice to meet you." King said, receiving the handshake.

"Hahahaha! That's the first time you've finally said something! So why were you all quiet and stoic-like when we were talking to you earlier?" Dorian laughed boisterously.

"Thinking." King lied.

"About how to beat the Guild Master? I bet ya didn't think he was just going to use some shoddy iron sword yet beat you to the ground with it, eh?" Dorian chuckled.

"Sure." King lied again.

"Not much of a conversationalist, huh? That's fine, it's still better than Dural, he practically never speaks!" Henry, the spear wielder said.

"Hmph." The armored adventurer grunted out.

"See? At least you can talk! That, and your face is visible! No one's ever seen Dural's face, hear him speak, or anything! Well, that and the Guild Master." The spear-wielder said.

"I'll be going now." King said, about to leave.

"Wait."

"Hmm?" King turned around to the source of the voice, and it was the armored adventurer, Dural.

Dural stood up from the bench, walked towards King, and...

...extended his hand for a handshake.

"I'm Dural. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"A pleasure." King said, shaking his hand.

Dural then sat back down, but the other adventurers went silent. Even the loud and boisterous Dorian was quiet.

"If there's nothing, I'll be leaving now." King said once more, as he left the waiting room.

" _Wonder why they all went quiet..."_ King thought. " _Well, not my problem anymore."_

And the very last thing King wanted to do, was to go right next door... and sell off everything else on hand for money.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"The total comes up to 2,252 credits. Thank you for dealing with us today." The receptionist said, handing King little notes which were all too similar to the yen used in real life.

Still, just a single 'credit' was enough to exchange for 100 Sage coins.

Accepting the notes of money, there was only one thing left to do for him.

"I'd also like to buy some materials."

If worse comes to worst, King's overpowered [Superior Materialization Sphere] would save the day. However, it would be best if he could upgrade it as much as possible. The higher the DMG value, the better.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

"That'd be 1,100 credits in total. Thank you for dealing with us today." The receptionist said, unfazed by King visiting and re-visiting every 5 minutes to buy a different ingot. The last one was incredibly rare, and King wasn't able to afford it.

Either way, King had gotten all he needed, and his [Superior Materialization Sphere] had changed into this:

* * *

Item: [Exalted Materialization Sphere]

DMG: 1~1,000,000,000,000

Tier: A-Class Weapon

Value: 10,000 credits

Description: A sphere of immaculate ancient-era engineering, perfected by millennia of toil. Can convert MP into any and all physical objects with any properties, magical effects, and concepts such as domains or rules possible. There is no limit to anything that can be created, as long as enough MP is expended to keep it active. Physical objects exist permanently once materialized, magical effects and concepts require MP to sustain.

Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 S-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Empyrean Heavenblood (1 kg), 0/10 Supreme Mana Potion

* * *

Before that, the [Superior Materialization Sphere] had upgraded to a [Flawless Materialization Sphere], before it became the [Immaculate Materialization Sphere], and finally, the [Exalted Materialization Sphere].

Either way, as per usual, the first and the third requirements King could easily solve. Finding {Supreme Beasts} probably won't be that hard. They'd probably just be regular old mobs, once people started reaching higher levels. [Supreme Mana Potions] were made with {S-Class Mana Crystals}, so when he solved the first requirement, he would solve the second requirement. The problem was the middle one, which required an ingot of Empyrean Heavenblood. It was, according to the receptionist, 'A legendary metal created by the fall of gods, created when the first 72 God-Masters had died to the tentacles and claws of the {Supreme Beast}.'

Rare as it was, the Merchant's Guild was the Merchant's Guild after all, as they had... only a single ingot in stock. The price...?

10,000,000 credits.

Needless to say, King wasn't going to be able to afford it anytime soon.

But after that, King had finished all that he wanted to at Orbis, and as he was preparing to leave, King tested crushing a single [Teleport Stone], to see if it could still bring him back to the fountain.

And as expected, it couldn't. King ended up somewhere in a forest.

"I guess this is as far as I can go with a single [Teleport Stone]." King said, sighing. Seems like he spent all that money on [Teleport Stones] for no reason, then. Well, at least he could get out of dungeons fast.

This time, King took out his newly-acquired [High-Grade Warp Gem], and warped back to the starter city's spawn.

Within the blink of an eye, King had already arrived at the spawn of the city.

King was about to go down to the dungeon to meet up with his temporary employer, that demon girl, but then he remembered a certain something he completely forgot to do.

"Right, that set of armor I sold..."

 **[20 minutes later...]**

After dealing with the necessary paperwork, King received the rest of his 90 royal coins, although to him, he may as well leave it on the sidewalk as change, after taking all 2,252 credits- well, 1,152 credits. He spend 1,100 credits on materials for his [Exalted Materialization Sphere].

Though, he should probably keep it. Just in case he needed to purchase something with small values of money.

After that, King went back down to the dungeon.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

King knocked on the door of the large boss room, and a High Daemon was the one to open the door.

"About time! You left so fast and for so long, I thought you bailed on us!" The familiar young voice called out. Turning to the source of the voice, the demon girl... was still having tea.

"I thought there's still another 11 hours until your event starts?" King asked.

"True, but you left for all of 8 hours! I was worried, you know!?"

"I need sleep."

"Ah, right. Humans and their sleep. Well, at least you didn't turn tail and run!"

"Well. I'm here. Anyway, where are all the other Lesser and Greater Daemons?" King asked.

"Oh, I just let them patrol the area. Wait, you don't mean-"

"I'm not done training."

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter:**

"How many are you planning to kill!?" The demon girl yelled, exasperated at King utterly slaughtering every last one of her Daemons.

"All of them." King replied nonchalantly as he decapitated a Greater Daemon whilst simultaneously using said head to kill a Lesser Daemon.

"Wha- bu- why-"

"Big sister, enough worrying. You didn't care earlier. Why care now?" The little sister said, pulling on her sister's sleeve.

"You know what- fine. Do what you want!" She said, stomping away.

" _That's strange. I'm still level 90 after all that. Why am I still level 90?"_ King thought, puzzled at his lack of progress.

And then, King got his answer when he checked his stats.

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


	7. Chapter 7: The Limits

**Chapter 7: The Limits**

* * *

"How many are you planning to kill!?" The demon girl yelled, exasperated at King utterly slaughtering every last one of her Daemons.

"All of them." King replied nonchalantly as he decapitated a Greater Daemon whilst simultaneously using said head to kill a Lesser Daemon.

"Wha- bu- why-"

"Big sister, enough worrying. You didn't care earlier. Why care now?" The little sister said, pulling on her sister's sleeve.

"You know what- fine. Do what you want!" She said, stomping away.

" _That's strange. I'm still level 90 after all that. Why am I still level 90?"_ King thought, puzzled at his lack of progress.

And then, King got his answer when he checked his stats.

* * *

Name: King

Level: 90 **[Sixth Limit]**

Title: [Ultimate-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 1,350,000,000/1,350,000,000 ([900,000,000] x1.5)

MP: 1,350,000,000/1,350,000,000 ([900,000,000] x1.5)

ST: 1,350,000,000/1,350,000,000 ([900,000,000] x1.5)

STR: 13,500,000 ([9,000,000] x1.5)

VIT: 13,500,000 ([9,000,000] x1.5)

INT: 13,500,000 ([9,000,000] x1.5)

DEX: 13,500,000 ([9,000,000] x1.5)

LCK: 13,500,000 ([9,000,000] x1.5)

Job Class: None

(Spells)

Active: [Heal], [Clean]

Passive: [Greater Protection], [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration]

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement V], [Vital Strikes V], [Stunning Blow V], [Sense Surroundings V], [Tracking IV]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning VII], [Hunter's Grace VII], [Knockout Blow V], [Bloody Battler], [Killing Spree], [Precise Movements IV], [Tireless Juggernaut IV], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000})], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {344,344/1,000,000})], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier VII: 20,871,046,385,000,000/1,000,000,000,000,000,000})]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

EXP: 1,783,890,010,391,935,230 / 9,000,000,000,000,000,000

* * *

" _What's this 'limit' thing? The game never explained anything about this."_ King thought.

But still, at least his strength was visibly rising. There was an extra digit on the back of his supposed stats!

For now, King still had no idea how strength would scale up at this point, but he'd get to that when he had the time. For now, he was going to get as much EXP as he could.

He definitely needed more than he expected, though. His EXP needs had skyrocketed up to 19 digits! And he was just level 90, [Sixth Limit]! Whatever that was!

...Well, nothing he could do about his ever-increasing need for heartless mob-slaughter. What he could do is go with it, and just get the EXP in question.

 **[4 hours later...]**

King's mind was utterly blank, save for the instinctual act of killing every single one of the Daemons ahead of him. He had kept it up for so long he had no sense of time already. All he knew was slaughter.

Until, the very last Greater Daemon was killed.

At that time, King received a new skill.

 **[Secret obtained! After doing nothing but grinding for four whole hours with an empty mind, you've unlocked [Unconscious Combat Mode]!]**

"Eh? That's it?" King said, his mind's gears finally turning after the simple thought of slaughter was over. After the surprisingly little amount of time he spent killing a literal army of Daemons, King received a new skill, which was **[Unconscious Combat Mode]**. King didn't know exactly what that was at the moment, but the name was probably self-explanatory.

"What do you mean, that's it?! You've killed every last Lesser and Greater Daemon I have!" King employer, the demon girl, yelled in disbelief. He just killed millions of Lesser and Greater Daemons, and he still wasn't satisfied?

"Well, I guess it was a bit much to have expected more." King sighed. He had killed... he had no idea, actually. "How many Lesser and Greater Daemons were that?"

"A few million, give or take."

"Hmm. That's within my expectations." King said. To be honest, he was expecting at least that many, but to have killed them all in 4 hours... he was getting more efficient, he had to say. If he kept up that rate, and there were the same amount of Daemons there were humans in the real world, (7 billion) He'd eradicate them all in 2 months. And that was by hand.

Still not a lot, to tell the truth. Granted, the Lesser and Greater Daemons were all like Dragon-level threats, but compared to God-level threats, they would be peanuts.

King would only feel safe after level 95, {Supreme Beast} territory.

"Tell you what. I'll be back in 6 hours, an hour before your event. I'll go do some stuff." King said, immediately crushing a [Teleport Stone] before the demon girl could protest.

"Well, you know what, I don't care. Seeing as he can kill the entire Lesser and Greater Daemon army given to me, I'll definitely be not placed last any longer! Sulayn's definitely going to kiss my tail!" The elder sister said, pumping a fist in the air.

"Big sister, personality is still volatile." The little sister said, poking her sister in the face.

"What do you mean?" The elder sister said carefreely.

"Changing from carefree to worrying too much. Like father said. Sister changes too much. Like different person."

"Really? It's just your imagination."

 **{Above Ground...}**

King had just teleported back up, and as he just appeared, he pulled out his [High-Grade Warp Gem] to teleport straight to Orbis.

The reason King didn't want to use the [High-Grade Warp Gem] in front of the demon girl was that he didn't want the possibility of her recognizing it. In the starter city, however, the highest-leveled player was still only level 42. Speaking of which, King checked out that Saitama and Garou were level 38 and 34 respectively, so they weren't very far behind.

Was still incomparable to King's level 90 character, though.

Granted, he still hadn't leveled up once since then, but that was because of some 'limit' thing he didn't know about. Speaking of which, he was level 90, [Ninth Limit] now.

His stats were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 90 **[Ninth Limit]**

Title: [Ultimate-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 13,500,000,000/13,500,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.5)

MP: 13,500,000,000/13,500,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.5)

ST: 13,500,000,000/13,500,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.5)

STR: 135,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.5)

VIT: 135,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.5)

INT: 135,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.5)

DEX: 135,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.5)

LCK: 135,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.5)

Job Class: None

(Spells)

Active: [Heal], [Clean]

Passive: [Greater Protection], [Greater Condition], [Greater Regeneration]

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement VI], [Vital Strikes VI], [Stunning Blow VI], [Sense Surroundings VI], [Tracking IV]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning VII], [Hunter's Grace VIII], [Knockout Blow VI], [Bloody Battler], [Killing Spree], [Precise Movements V], [Tireless Juggernaut VI], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000})], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {344,344/1,000,000})], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier VIII: 1,009,871,450,550,000,000/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000})]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

(Secrets)

 **[Unconscious Combat Mode]**

EXP: 10,783,890,010,391,935,230 / 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

* * *

Whatever this [Limit] thing would be, at least it helped raise King's stats.

King checked his newest ability, and got its description.

* * *

 **[ Unconscious Combat Mode]**

Description: Pretty self-explanatory. After four hours of continuous grinding with nothing on your mind, you've obtained the ability to fight unconsciously!

Effect: Player character can activate **[Unconscious Combat Mode]** to relinquish control over the avatar which will automatically attack any hostile within range, and will constantly seek out the nearest hostile to eliminate. Player character will automatically try and run from mobs 5 levels above the player, and can automatically heal with items in inventory. Effect persists even after logging off.

Passive Effect: Automatically blocks or dodges any attacks and counter-attacks the source of the attack.

* * *

To put it shortly, King had basically an automated killing machine which not only attacked any hostile, but it automatically seeks for hostile mobs to kill as well! Even when inactive, the passive effect was an automated dodge/block of any attack, and it would send a counter-attack as well! This was, by far, the most convenient ability for King.

What disappointed him however, was that throughout his 3-4 day game-play, he STILL hadn't encountered a boss yet. His [Sadist] and [Pyromaniac] perks were basically sleeping. They may as well have been useless.

"Well, I still have 6 more hours, so I guess I can go to Orbis. Maybe buy some more spells." King said, before activating his [High-Grade Warp Gem].

King then appeared beside an inconspicuous Warp Node in one of the the sections in the city, to make it seem like he warped there through the Warp Node.

Unsuspectingly and inconspicuously, King went to the main branch of the Mages Guild, which was not only conveniently placed right in front of the Adventurer's Guild, there was a very, very, very noticeable beacon of light which came from the largest structure of the Mages Guild, so it honestly wasn't hard.

Even if say, he was 10,000 kilometers away from the guild in the city, he'd easily locate it, due to the blinding beacon of light which basically yelled 'WE'RE OVER HERE' to anyone and everyone looking in the direction of the beacon.

Walking in, it had that cleanliness that was nowhere to be found anywhere else in the game, other than the other branches of the Mages Guild. It was as if it was magically cleaned every day. Which it probably was, now that King thought about it.

And as he walked towards the receptionist, it was obvious that King stuck out like a sore thumb.

Obviously, it was due to the blandness of his attire, compared to the other people in the Mages Guild. Everyone either had expensive armors or priceless mage robes.

"Ah, wel...come to the Mages Guild? I-is there anything I can help with?" The receptionist said, obviously not expecting King. By that, as in someone as blandly dressed as King.

"I'd like to buy some spells." King said.

"A-alright... here's a list of the spells you can buy." The receptionist said, handing King a stone, when touched, displayed information about a multitude of spells.

"Hmm, I'd like..."

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"That'd be 852 credits." The receptionist said.

"Here." King said, taking out exactly 852 credits.

What he had bought wasn't really all that much, though when compared to the other spells in his arsenal... let's just say he had a massive upgrade.

[Eminent Protection] was just a version of [Greater Protection], but given every single steroid in existence. It blocked up to 90% of all damage, up to 90,000,000,000 damage absorbed. When the damage dealt didn't even exceed 9,000,000, it'd be directly absorbed, leaving zero effect. If King cast this on himself and swaggered right into the fifth or sixth floor of the dungeon, he'd honestly just receive absolutely zero damage.

[Eminent Condition] increased all of King's stats by 90%, meaning if King constantly cast it on himself, he'd have a permanent boost of 90% on all of his stats, seeing as he mostly did everything solo, and had no need to cast it on anyone else. Unless of course, he was journeying with Garou and Saitama. To which he would cast it on them, because he'd probably be there only to help them farm.

[Eminent Regeneration] was basically an upgraded version of [Greater Regeneration], which increased regeneration rate by 90% instead of the measly 50% [Greater Regeneration] offered.

Those were really the three only remarkable spells King bought. The rest were mostly lesser spells, like [Cataclysm], [Infernal Blaze], [Ice Age], [Disastrous Tempest] and more.

Yep, those were definitely just lesser spells. Nothing to be mentioned, really.

Sarcasm aside, the level 80~ish spells were just there for situational purposes. King had also bought actual lesser basic spells. You know, for daily living conveniences.

One other thing King bought was an actual, no joke, Gem of True Sight. Yes, the game had them. It basically nullified all illusions, unless they were level 90 and above.

And with that, King had spent almost all of his credits, left with only 300 credits.

Despite that, it was money well spent. King now no longer need to worry about illusions, and his spells would allow him to do certain things more efficiently.

Currently, King opened his stats, and saw this:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 90 **[Ninth Limit]**

Title: [Ultimate-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 17,100,000,000/17,100,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.9)

MP: 560,000,000/17,100,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.9)

ST: 17,100,000,000/17,100,000,000 ([9,000,000,000] x1.9)

STR: 171,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.9)

VIT: 171,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.9)

INT: 171,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.9)

DEX: 171,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.9)

LCK: 171,000,000 ([90,000,000] x1.9)

Job Class: None

(Spells)

Active: [Heal], [Clean], [Cataclysm], [Infernal Blaze], [Ice Age], [Disastrous Tempest]... (expand?)

Passive: [Eminent Protection], [Eminent Condition], [Eminent Regeneration], [Eminent Flight], [Time-Dilation], [Spatial Warp]... (expand?)

(Skills)

Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement VI], [Vital Strikes VI], [Stunning Blow VI], [Sense Surroundings VI], [Tracking IV]

Passive: [Predator's Cunning VII], [Hunter's Grace VIII], [Knockout Blow VI], [Bloody Battler], [Killing Spree], [Precise Movements V], [Tireless Juggernaut VI], [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier IV: {2,455,982/1,000,000,000})], [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: {344,344/1,000,000})], [Unarmed Mastery (Tier VIII: 1,009,871,450,550,000,000/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000})]

(Perks)

Active: None

Passive: [Sadist I], [Pyromaniac I]

(Secrets)

 **[Unconscious Combat Mode]**

EXP: 10,783,890,010,391,935,230 / 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

* * *

Expand? Looks like the display only showed 6 spells and hid the rest. For some reason, that didn't apply to skills.

Well, he did buy a few hundred spells, after all. It made sense. If he wanted to see all of his spells, it'd probably block his entire view, and then some.

No, he definitely didn't go overboard with buying spells.

Either way, King had nothing left to do, so...

King simply sat on a chair, and logged out.

When one logged out, one's character would still be active, however, they would do nothing more than sit around and wait, and also attack any and all hostiles. Though King logged off directly inside a city, he should be fine.

As much as he loved playing games, he needed a break every now and then. What he could do, was finally get to something he wanted to do a few days ago.

Pulling out his [High-Grade Warp Gem], King tested it out.

King went from his apartment in city M, to that inconspicuous takoyaki shop he once saw on the way home.

"Let's see... I forgot my wallet. Shit." King said, sighing. He was actually craving for some food, now.

Sadly, he had to wait for a whole hour before it would work again. Well, it didn't matter. He knew the way home, so one thing he would test out, would be his other spells.

King cast a basic [Flight] spell on himself, and flew home. At least, that's what he wanted to do. Instead...

"Shit, flying's hard." King said, struggling to balance himself, almost flying into a telephone pole. "I guess I'll be practicing flying, for now."

 **[30 minutes later...]**

King got the gist of flying in 25 minutes, and flew home in the last 5 minutes. The speed of flying was pretty fast, although nothing much to praise. It was comparable to standard attack helicopters, really.

King had even stronger spells for flight, like [Greater Flight], [Grand Flight], and [Eminent Flight]. [Eminent Flight] drained MP like crazy, though, and was equally fast. From King's experience in-game, he could probably go around the entirety of Earth in 15 minutes. That was basically escape velocity.

However, even with King's crazy mana reserves from being level 90, [Ninth Limit], King still wouldn't be able to keep it up for more than 10 minutes even with a full mana bar, much less one with only a third left, after consistently casting [Eminent Regeneration] and [Eminent Condition].

King would only need to cast [Eminent Protection] every now and then, so that wasn't included.

Still, it was good enough. King flew back, got his wallet (and keys) and went back to that takoyaki shop.

As King landed in an inconspicuous alleyway to avoid detection, King headed straight for the takoyaki shop.

"Ah, a customer. Please wait, we'll be ready to serve soon." A large and rather hairy man said, getting equipment ready. Come to think of hit, he was a bit... too hairy.

"Anyway, what would you like to-"

A gorilla. A gorilla was the one taking his order.

"-order... excuse me, this might sound a little rude, but are you... S-Class Hero King?"

"...Ah, yeah. That's me." King said blankly, a little off-put by how he's being served by a gorilla. A talking one, at that.

"Uh... so, what would you like to get?"

"What's on the menu?"

"Well, we have our ordinary takoyaki set of eight takoyaki, a 'large' set of takoyaki which has sixteen takoyaki, an 'extra large' of 24 takoyaki, different kinds of sushi as sides, some sake, beer, and... that's it." The gorilla said, giving King a rather simple menu.

"I'll take a 'large' takoyaki set, and a can of beer. I'll also take an 'extra large' set, to go."

"Okay... coming right up."

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"Okay, here's your 'large' takoyaki set and a can of Sapporo Yebisu." The gorilla said, placing a platter of 16 takoyaki and a can of beer in front of King.

"Thanks." King said, taking a toothpick, before digging in.

"Um... if I may, Mr King, are you here to destroy the House of Evolution?" The gorilla asked.

"I have no idea what that is, and I'm just here for takoyaki." King responded simply. "Hmm, it's good!"

"Oh, really? Thank goodness. The House of Evolution has already been destroyed, so we assumed that you were going to kill all of us to destroy the remaining remnants of our organization." The gorilla said, heaving a sigh or relief.

"Why would I? I've never heard of your organization, nor would I care. The takoyaki's good, too." King said through a mouthful of takoyaki.

"Ah, I see. Well, that's good! At least we won't be destroyed." The gorilla sighed in relief again.

"Armored Gorilla! The 'extra large' takoyaki are ready!" A voice from behind called out for the gorilla.

"Ah, the takoyaki's ready." The gorilla said, going into the kitchen. It then came back out with a box of takoyaki in a plastic bag with the takoyaki stand's logo on it.

"Thanks. How much is it in total?" King asked.

"Oh, that'll be 2,000 yen."

King took out two 1,000 yen notes, but before he could pay, the gorilla stopped him.

"Um... if it's not much to ask, can we... get a picture with you?"

"Hmm? Sure."

"Great! Doctor! Get out here! We're getting a picture!" The gorilla said, calling out to the voice in the back.

"What is it, Armored Gorilla? I'm busy preparing batter of the next batch-" A young man walked out from behind the curtain, and when he saw King, he dropped the skimmer he was holding.

"S-S-Class Hero King?"

"Yes, that's me."

While the young man was busy being shocked, the gorilla- whom was also cyborg in nature, King noticed, was fumbling with a phone.

"Doctor, get in here! We're getting a photo with the one and only S-Class Hero King!" The gorilla said, before pulling the young man into the frame, with King eating takoyaki in the background.

"Okay, get ready! In 3...2...1!" The gorilla said, as he took a picture with King and that young man.

"Alright, thanks again, Mr King!" The gorilla said, bowing.

"Eh? Ah, yes, thank you for coming to our establishment today." The young man said, also bowing towards King.

"Right. Thanks again." King said, walking away with his bag of takoyaki in one hand and can of beer in the other.

At that moment, he seemed not like the 'World's Strongest Hero', but like an average everyday civilian.

"We were just visited by S-Class Hero King." The young man said, adjusting his spectacles.

"Yep! And I got a picture with him!" The gorilla said, smiling.

"Armored Gorilla. Do you know what happens, if people find out that our takoyaki stall was visited by an S-Class Hero? S-Class Hero **King** , no less?" The young man asked.

"Ah... we can use this to boost our popularity!" The gorilla said, realizing what the doctor wanted.

And that moment, was the moment that sparked the start of a international takoyaki franchise with multiple chain stores, became a household name, and which would surpass well-known franchises, such as City-K Fried Squid, McDoppos, Dunkin' Daifukus, and more.

That however, was something for the future.

 **[30 minutes later...]**

After keeping the 'extra-large' set of takoyaki and half-finished can of beer he got into his inventory, King flew around with [Grand Flight] to find a suitable place, and finally landed in a large canyon.

Strangely, there were burn marks and craters all over the place. Hell, there was even a large, unnatural valley in between a huge rock... which seemed to have went through the mountain behind it, and the one behind that as well?

"Heh, it's like Saitama was fighting with something here." King joked, unaware of how accurate his statement was.

"Anyway, let's test out my physical capabilities." King said, as he tried out a few things.

"Firstly, let's try running." King said, as he started running. He started off at a slow jog, before speeding up to a sprint, and then he started running faster and faster, until for some reason, he felt the ground become soft.

"Hmm? What's that-" King turned around to see-

And the trail behind him had turned from rock to magma. Looking down on his shoes- well, there were no shoes left. Only King's feet were left. Also, his pants were starting to burn up. His shirt was already gone before King even noticed it.

Immediately putting it out with a simple [Water] spell, King sighed. "Dammit, my shoes. Well, whatever. I'll just try something else, then."

Well then, running, not even at full speed, melted the ground beneath him. Not to mention, he was running quite a bit, as King was running around the canyon, and he should've needed to cover quite the distance before reaching the same ground again. To melt it was...

Speaking of which, it was a good thing King could still access his in-game inventory.

Putting on his standard grey-white tunic set which was pretty much indestructible, King continued testing out his newfound physical prowess.

 **[10 minutes later...]**

"Okay. That settles it." King said, as he had gotten enough information. Indeed, he was as strong as his in-game character. How, you might ask?

Well, simply because the canyon King was in had become a crater. Because King thought it was a bright idea to test out his punching power by directly punching the ground.

It had an impact of well... quite a bit.

"Shit, it's lucky I didn't try punching with my full strength." King said, his 'King Engine' beating out of nervousness. The crater he was in was caused by a lovetap. Literally less than 1% of his full power.

"Well, I guess this much is good enough. Not like God-level threats appeared very often." King jokingly said. Still, that didn't mean he was going to stop leveling his character. It just meant he could be more relaxed about it.

Also, it was definitely proven; he had the powers of his character in the game. No idea how, but he did.

"Still..." King said, looking at the area. Instead of a punch, it was more as if a meteor had crashed here.

"Well, at least no one saw that." King sighed, before using his [High-Grade Warp Gem] to teleport directly into his apartment.

Now, he still had another 4-ish hours. What to do? Well, for starters...

King cast a [Clean] spell on his whole apartment, and as expected, it did its work magnificently.

Another thing King did, was cast [Reinforce] on his entire apartment. That one time a bird-monster flew into his apartment, and if not for Saitama, he'd have been dead.

Repairs were expensive, and technically casting [Reinforce] on the entire apartment was more expensive in terms of MP, but it was more convenient for King.

Then, King slapped himself in the face.

"How could I forget? The most important thing?"

King put on his Orbis helmet, but he wasn't going back into Orbis Online. Not yet. After so much time playing that game, he forgot the most important reason why he bought the headset in the first place. The real reason he bought it.

His heartbeat increased. The 'King Engine' roared.

The opening theme played.

Expectations gnawed at King's sanity. The anticipation was unbearable.

"Wake up! Big Brother! It's morning time~! Let's go somewhere to play~!"

King smiled.

Doki-Doki Sisters in VR.

It was going to be **LEGENDARY.**

 **[4 hours later...]**

"I am content." King said, a deep, refreshed smile on his face.

If he had to describe it... he couldn't describe it.

"Ah, it's about time, too." King said, noticing the time. The event starts just about right now.

As soon as he logged back in, King immediately blended in with the crowd and hid in an inconspicuous corner before using his [High-Grade Warp Gem] to directly warp right in front of the boss room.

King walked in, and was greeted with the pacing figure of his employer.

"Ah, there you are! There event was going to start in 5 minutes! You scared me when you didn't appear for the last 10 minutes!" She said, heaving a sigh of relief when she saw King walk in.

"Well, now what?" King asked.

"You'll be transported to that battlefield I talked about earlier. We usually have time to arrange our armies, but seeing as you've already killed off most of my armies, and I only have you, 8 High Daemons and my single Arch-Daemon, I don't really need to worry much."

"Hmm. Tell you what; my advice is this. There's no need to move your army. I'll be doing most of the killing." King said.

"Even the Arch-Daemons? Yeah, I doubt that. I'll leave everything else to you, though." She said, not believing King.

"Sure." King said simply. He didn't really have the boredom, time nor want to convince a block of code that he was indeed strong enough to do everything solo.

"A few last questions." King asked.

"Fine, what?"

"Are Lesser, Greater, High and Arch-Daemons particularly weak against anything?" King asked.

"Oh. Father said that we might need to inform our outside help about something like this. I guess he was right." She said, shrugging. "Lesser and Greater Daemons are particularly weak against magic, as they have literally zero resistance against anything magic related. I doubt that's useful, though. I've never seen you cast spells."

"Aside from that, Lesser and Greater Daemons are weak against the cold. They're suited to operating in the demon-continent, which is much, much hotter than this. Anything below the temperature to freeze water would slow them greatly."

"High and Arch Daemons are particularly resistant against magic, as they're built in the likeness of us demons, whom are innately resistant against magic. The weak point of a High Daemon would be their physical strength, as they're only half as strong as a Greater Daemon."

"Arch Daemons, as cream of the crop, are obviously the best of all demonkind-developed weapons!" She said, puffing up her chest in pride about that fact. "They're physically strong, magically resistant, and the best is that they can even enter a special state called [Demonic Empowering], which increases their physical and magical powers a great amount!"

"Well, obviously, after that great a transformation, there's a downside as well. They can only maintain the state for about 10 minutes, and then they weaken, until they're about the same level as a High Daemon."

"I see. And aside from Daemons, other demons may also have other members in their army, like how you hired me?" King asked.

"Yep. I think a few human kingdoms even have a contract with a few of my siblings, so they have a human army as well." She said, putting a finger on her chin in thought.

"Right. So the moment the event starts, I can just start killing everything that isn't me, humans included?" King asked for conformation.

"Yeah." The demon girl said, before her tail perked up. "None of mine, though!"

"I know that. So when does the event-"

Suddenly, King was greeted with the familiar feeling of sudden detachment from the physical world, which was one of when he used the teleport node to get into Orbis, and when he used the [High-Grade Warp Gem].

As he reappeared into the physical world, King was in a small room- well, small relative to the huge boss room he was in previously. It was still rather large, being 20 by 20 by 20 meters in volume.

Needless to say, it was also luxuriously decorated, even more so than the boss room, actually.

"Well then. My 8 High Daemons and my one Arch-Daemon are already in the battlefield, awaiting my orders. Usually the general of my outside help would be here just so that he would be able to choose the placement of his army, but seeing as you're alone, you can choose where you want to place yourself." The demon girl explained.

"I see. Well then, where is the area with the most amount of Daemons?" King asked.

"You really don't have other thoughts, huh?" She sweat-dropped. "Anyway, here's Sulayn's usual placement. She always thinks she's all high and mighty, well, go in there and wreck up her army for me!" She said, pointing at a region on a floating map-

Wait, floating map?

"Huh. I see. By the way, when did that floating map appear?" King asked.

"Hm? Oh, it appears whenever I want it to appear. Everyone gets a map when the event first starts. So anyway, here's where you should go! Wreck the whole army!" The demon girl said, being somewhat over-enthusiastic.

"I see. Can you see the situation of the specific area?" King asked. He might've been reaching a little too high with this, but-

"Yeah, here." The demon girl poked the region of the map, as a glow appeared above the map, and an image of a literal sea of Daemons, Lesser and Greater was shown.

"Right." King said, but his thoughts were otherwise. " _So the map can even show the current situation of a battle. What a game, it feels like I've been literally sucked into another world directly. I guess this is the first time I'm not disappointed by the developers of a game."_

"So how to I get there?" King asked.

"Just poke the area on the map and infuse mana into it." The demon girl said simply.

King placed his finger on that specific area on the map, infused a little bit of MP, and suddenly he was right in the middle of a Daemon tide.

"I guess it's that simple." King said, casting a simple [Flight] spell just to get above the level of the Daemon army, which noticed King and was climbing over each other just to reach him.

"To get this over with fast, I guess I'll use some spells. They're weak against low temperatures, so I guess [Ice Age]'ll do." King said to himself, as he cast an [Ice Age] spell.

Over 70,000 Lesser Daemons and maybe 6,000 Greater Daemons perished, with another 20,000 more slowed down by the sudden appearance of King's [Ice Age].

"Man, being a mage really is convenient, huh. You get to kill hordes of enemies all at once. Well, at least this game allows you to use magic and other weapons at the same time, unlike most conventional MMORPGs." King said to himself.

"I guess I'll just stick to spells for now." King said, preparing another [Ice Age] spell. Hey, they didn't seem to have any defenses, so if he could cheese it, he'd cheese it.

...

...

...

"Who exactly is that!?" A different demon girl said, looking at her army getting absolutely demolished by one man. Using a combination of flight spells and powerful Ice Magic, he was utterly destroying every single Lesser and Greater Daemon that couldn't reach him! Well, none of them could reach him in the first place! He was utterly overwhelming all of them with just that single Ice spell alone!

Well, that and the majority of her demons couldn't fly! Only her High Daemons and Arch Daemon had access to magic like that! As far as she knew, human mages that strong were only hired by the 100 eldest siblings! Where in the world did Saphy manage to hire him from-

It didn't matter now. What did was making sure she suffered less damage! She was not going to lose to Saphy, not now, not ever!

"Dammit! I'll send out my Arch Daemon, then!" She said in a fit of rage. She wasn't one to last longer than the last three places, and she wasn't all that great a tactician, but she was sure as hell not losing to Saphy! Losing to one of the losers of the 'Forever Last Three' would shame her for the rest of her life!

...Granted, she was also one of the 'Forever Last Three', but she prided herself in never, ever getting lower than the third last! It was the only bit of pride she had, and-

Wait. Her Arch-Daemon was dead. She was mumbling about how she wasn't getting last place from Saphy of all people, and off-screen, that... that human mage had somehow killed off her Arch-Daemon.

 _"Hehehehe.. hehehehe... This is all just a dream, it's just one big joke..."_ Sulayn thought, denying reality.

And from the sheer shock itself, she went unconscious.

...

...

...

"Was that it?" King said, slightly disappointed. He was facing an Arch-Daemon in battle, another level 90 being like he was.

Then he one-punched it. He literally gave the Saitama treatment to the Arch-Daemon. And that was, according to his employer, 'the strongest demonkind has to offer'.

"I have a feeling that this battle will be rather disappointing." King said to himself, looking at his fist that had the remains of the Arch-Daemon on it.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

"...I'm actually disappointed." King said, sighing. He stood atop the remains of millions of artificial lives, all of them contributing precious EXP. Still, King expected... more.

In fact, he had already eliminated the whole army, including the Arch Daemon and High Daemons, Lesser and Greater Daemons with a myriad of spells King tested out, and the EXP he gained... was nowhere near enough to level up ONCE.

Well, stringent requirements were stringent requirements. Who cared.

He did, actually. But hey, if there were around 800 demons participating, and the higher up the seniority, the stronger the army, King might, MIGHT just be able to level up to level 91. Level 92 was probably a pipe dream, seeing as the level requirements had scaled from 1 to a couple thousand real quick. The EXP bar quickly grew, but it was more practical to just see how many more digits there were this time.

And if level 90 and level 91 were separated with SIX DIGITS, King didn't want to think about the rest of the levels.

Perhaps staying at level 90 for now was good enough. Realistically, level 90 was considered God-level threat already, and if he wanted to, he could destroy the planet, but that was only hypothetically speaking, as there was no way he'd do that.

It didn't mean he would give up leveling, though. As much as it was a total pain in his ass to level up now, he'd still want to achieve level 100, at the very least. Level 200 and 300 could wait. It was only a few weeks since he started playing, reaching level 200 might take months, and level 300... yeah, he'd reach his 30th birthday long before he'd reach level 300.

Still, the best course of action now was to just finish all of it right now. Killing off the entire armies of Daemons would be easy, the only limitation being the range of his limbs.

...Which was why if he were to continue only using his fists, it'd be a few months before the entire event was concluded.

Though thanks to his ample supply of MP, that was more of a trivial matter.

"Hmm. Well, I guess this is all it would be if it were just one of the lower armies. One of the lowest, in fact. Hopefully there's stronger beings to kill later on."

 **[2 hours later...]**

King had already slaughtered around a dozen or so armies such as the ones he dealt with earlier, difference being the Arch Daemons were slightly stronger, and there were more Lesser and Greater Daemons.

They were definitely getting stronger, but not so much to the point it made King sweat. The fight with the Guild Master, what was his name again... Percy? Pascal? Eh, not important. He had bigger fish to fry. Speaking of...

Dodging the massive carnivorous fish flying towards him, King prepared another [Ice Age] spell and shot it towards the large lake beneath him, freezing all the mobs inside.

Still, it would be a long way until he was done killing everything.

"Hey! How come you didn't tell me you were so strong!?" An excited, yet familiar voice seemed to blare beside King's ears, and- hey, where'd she come from?

King's temporary employer, that demon girl was floating right beside him, and if he wasn't mistaken, she was wearing much fancier clothing than before. Her dress definitely didn't have as many frills as before.

"Huh, I didn't know you were able to appear beside me." King said, floating in mid-air. He had just finished killing off the entire army, so he didn't really have much to do at the moment. Chatting with his temporary employer was fine.

"We're allowed to spectate whenever and wherever we want to, but that's beside the point! How come you didn't tell me you were a mage!?" The demon girl said angrily.

"Does it matter? The one before that was training for physical attacks. I'm just using magic now." King said. "Not to mention, does it matter? As long as I kill things, I'm happy."

"I see. Still, I don't like having things hidden from me! But anyway, aside from that, I'm pretty happy with your performance! If I wasn't one of the Demon Lord's daughter, I'd kiss you in happiness! But you'll have to settle for some physical rewards instead." She said.

"Not to mention..." Her face suddenly flashed mischievously. "...thanks to you, I've been getting back at a few bastards that have been bullying me since a long time ago!"

Suddenly, twenty to thirty other demons appeared beside her, all of them the children of the Demon Lord, King assumed. Only thing being...

All of them were in various states of humiliation. One demon girl was butt-naked, covered in dirt and grime. She looked like she was forced to roll around in dirt. Her hair was golden blond, but covered with... slime? It looked like slime- no, wait, it was moving. It was definitely a slime. A living slime. Hey, it was a level 40 slime, to boot. A Gelatinous Abomination, to be exact.

One demon girl was bound in ropes, gagged, blindfolded, and she even had earplugs on. She was in a cube of glass, and was moving around aimlessly, constantly knocking against the walls. Nothing of her was noteworthy, with the exception of what she was wearing. Aside from ropes, she was dressed in a basic high-school girl's uniform. The glass cube shook, and the demon-girl inside ran around panicking, knocking against more walls, falling over and the blindfold seemed to be tear-stained- nope, wait. The tears were already leaking out. Did she just piss herself?

A similar-yet-younger-looking demon boy was wearing a sleeveless romper with various baby paraphernalia, like a bib, pacifier, baby rattle, etc. In short, he was dressed like an infant. Heck, he was even wearing a diaper underneath his romper. The demon's stomach gurgled loudly, and the demon in question had an uncomfortable expression on his face. Whatever it was, he couldn't hold it for much longer.

One was doing a handstand on a floating piece of floor, covered in soot and ash. Floating daggers would poke him in the sides every now and then, making him struggle to balance on the floating board.

Another constantly had hot wax dripping on her body, and every so often floating whips would manifest and whip the demon girl.

One was constantly electrocuted every five seconds.

One was being tickled by a large amount of floating gauntlets, although she seemed to be trying her hardest to keep her cool. King could tell her efforts were in vain, though.

Another was covered in snakes, trying his damned hardest not to move, another was upside down, being drowned every so often, another was being fondled by tentacles (don't ask), and many more.

"I don't mean to intrude in things that aren't my business, but..." King pointed at the other demons in various states of humiliation and torture.

"Hmm? Them? They're the ones that have been bullying me constantly! This one!" She said, pointing to the girl covered in dirt and slime. "She's big sister Cheshire! She always looks down on us last three, and when she wins, she always brags about how she's so much superior to the rest of us! Saying that compared to her, we're just peasants that roll around in the mud and play with slimes! Look at her now!" She said, proudly displaying her disgraced sister.

"I never made you roll around in the dirt for real, though! The slime is on my hair! Get it off! Saphy! Get it off!" Cheshire said, tears forming in her eyes.

"True, but we made a bet, didn't we!?" She said, grinning smugly. "You have to roll around in mud and have a Gelatinous Abomination on your head for a week! You're also my personal servant for the next 500 years! If you lose again..." She grinned evilly. "You'll be my servant for the rest of your life!"

"Deal! That human over there probably won't last longer than 300 years anyway! Even the human Ascendant Sages only live until 400 years!" Cheshire said angrily.

"Hmph! You said it yourself!" King's employer, Saphy said, still grinning smugly.

"Okay. So who's the one bound in ropes?" King asked. "And what's she wearing?"

"That's big sister Felicia!" She said, grinning sadistically. "She used to always bully me when we were younger, always putting me in weird outfits and forcing me to go blindfolded, tied up, gagged and even deafened with earplugs in a cave with monsters! See how she likes it!"

"I'm not that bad, though. I only said that to her, but it's just a glass cube that shakes every so often." She said, looking at the figure of Felicia on the floor, crying and struggling while covered in her own piss.

"I kinda feel bad though, even though I had to deal with this a hundred and some times before. Maybe I should've just humiliated her like big brother Felix?"

"I'm guessing that boy over there is Felix?" King pointed at the demon boy wearing infant clothing, struggling to hold his 'floodgates' from bursting.

"Huh, how'd you know?" She said, surprised. "Yeah, that's big brother Felix. Even though he's the younger one, he constantly looks down on me cause I'm always in the last three in this event!"

"Wait, 'big brother'? 'younger'?" King asked, confused.

"Oh, father said that the seniority is decided by our performance in this event. That's how I went from the two-hundredth-eldest in age to youngest!" She said, pouting, evidently unhappy with how seniority was addressed. Even King had to agree. The elder (in age) was to be respected, no matter how superior you were!

...Well, except Saitama. He was just a good bro.

"Anyway, why do they look so similar?" King asked.

"Well, first would be that they're siblings from the same mother, another thing is that they're twins." Saphy replied.

"Siblings from the same mother? You mean the only relation you have with you other 'siblings' is with your father?" King asked.

"Yep! Father has all sorts of concubines, and big brother Felix and Felicia come from the same concubine, Lady Flavia of the Forest. And like I said, they're also twins." She responded. "So we're more like half-siblings instead of full siblings."

"Uh huh. And why do they look so different in age?" King asked, ignoring the fact that his employer casually stated that her father, the Demon Lord had presumably hundreds of concubines.

"Well, that's because Felix's growth spurt hasn't happened yet!" Saphy teased, poking Felix in the cheek. "He's supposedly 3 minutes older, but he hasn't even hit his growth spurt like his sister, and I don't think he'll be hitting it any time soon!"

Right. He didn't hit the growth spurt. That's why his twin sister looks like a teenager but he looked like a ten-year old.

"Shut up! 7,000 years is still young! I'll grow any time now!" The demon-boy, Felix said, tears streaming down his eyes. "Felicia simply hit hers earlier!"

"Earlier by 600 years? Sure, sure. Now why don't you let go like the 'widdle bwaby' you are?" Saphy poked at Felix's stomach, causing him to recoil and smack away Saphy's hand. "Stop it! And let me out of these clothes already! I'm really gonna burst!"

"Nope! This is punishment for looking down on your _elder sister!_ Maybe next time you can show some respect to your elders!" She said, continuing to poke at Felix's sides, further pushing the poor boy to his 'breaking point'.

"...I see." King said, not questioning his employer's idea of a 'punishment'. If anything, King simply cut out anything he wanted to question. He'd just ask later. After the event.

"Anyway, I'll be going now." King said, noticing a new army charging for him.

"Oh, that should be big brother Gregory!" Saphy said, looking at the army. "He likes evolving his Daemons to be resistant to ice, so he probably think he's your worst enemy. In return, his Daemons are weak against physical attacks."

"Okay." King said, before flying straight into the army, and started killing the entire army. Except this time, King had a plan:

With his new 'secret', his **[Unconscious Combat Mode]** would be able to allow him to sit back and relax as his body did all the work on his own. Now was the perfect time to test it out.

After killing twenty to thirty Daemons, King activated it, and immediately after, his body moved on its own, killing Daemons left and right, with almost the same efficiency as he had when he was controlling it himself.

 _"If I'm not mistaken, I can also log out, and it'll be active, as well. After this Daemon army is destroyed, If the description doesn't lie, I should be seeking the nearest hostile to kill after this, as well."_ King thought, before logging out.

The all-familiar sensation of his consciousness getting pulled out returned once more as King was returned to the title screen. One difference was:

In the corner of his vision, he could still see his character pummeling and beating the shit out of Daemons in a small screen.

"Nice, seems like it works properly." King said to himself.

And now, something he wanted to do...

Create a new character.

King originally aimed for getting level 100 first, but seeing as he was already 60 levels ahead of the second-highest leveled character, and also because getting to level 100 was a massive pain in the ass at the moment, King thought he could just create a new character and experience the story properly, this time. His main-character... well, he got a few things already, like meeting the [Third Prince] of the starter city... what was his name again?

Ah, whatever. It was just an NPC, no point trying hard to remember something that unimportant.

Still, as soon as he thought of creating a new character, a window-popup appeared in front of him again.

 **[Create New Character? (Yes/No)]**

The obvious choice was obvious.

Then, came the familiar character customization screen. Now, King looked exactly like his first character. Apparently, when he exited the game for the first time, his previous unhealthy lean figure was replaced with his more toned game-character appearance.

King didn't really feel the need to change his character's appearance, so he thought he'd just leave it be, like the first time.

However, things weren't that simple.

 **[You have a character that looks exactly like this. NPCs that have met or know of that character will comment on this. Continue? (Yes/No)]**

"Huh. With the AI that good, it makes sense that they'd comment on it. I mean, it's kind of obvious. Even an idiot would be able to question the fact that I look EXACTLY like my other character." King said to himself. "Still, that's not stopping me."

Choosing the 'Yes' option, King once more had to choose his name.

Again, with the name 'King', he now was in front of a box filled with weapons.

Apparently, choosing one's name pretty much had no restrictions. He could re-use his old name no problem.

"I've taken the materialization sphere last time, so I'll try using a new, proper weapon this time." King said to himself, inspecting all the weapons in the box.

 **[5 minutes later...]**

King had chosen a 50 point spear, and a large 50 point full-body shield. He basically said 'go fuck yourself' to all the armor.

...Not really, King just didn't like any of the armor. All of them were too restraining for his liking. He watched a documentary before, about how knight armor was so flexible that some knights could even perform somersaults in them. The thing was, those types or armors were tailored to the wearer's own body, so those open world RPG tropes of killing enemies and wearing their armor immediately after was a bit false, as they wouldn't be able to fit in the armor as well as the original wearer.

The armor in the box was starter armor, meaning it was all mass-produced ones. Uncomfortable, restraining, bulky...

Perhaps King was being picky, but hey, at least a spear and shield was basic. His second character would be a one-on-one kind of character. High single-damage hits but slow attacks. That kind of choice would be difficult to work with in the open field outside of the city with many wolves and other mobs, but in the dungeon where enemies were most often just in ones or groups of two or three, it would be okay, if not better than basic swords and bows.

Accepting his choice, King was then brought into the game world once more, with spear and shield in hand. Still wearing the basic grey tunic and white pants.

Checking his inventory, the money was at zero, his spear dealt 25~75 damage, the shield had a protective rating of 100, and...eh?

King's black combat knife was still in his inventory. His overpowered, 2,500~5,000 damage combat knife which he never even touched once.

 _"Strange. Wasn't that in my main character's inventory? Or is this knife able to be stored across all my characters?"_ King thought.

"Well, whatever. I'll just register as an adventurer and immediately head for the dungeon." King said to himself, heading towards the dungeon.

 **[45 minutes later...]**

King had registered as an adventurer, farmed some EXP, took a test and passed, and continued farming for EXP.

Currently, his stats were as follows:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 16

Title: [Iron-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 1,600/1,600

MP: 1,600/1,600

ST: 400/1,600

STR: 16

VIT: 16

INT: 16

DEX: 16

LCK: 16

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Domineering Thrust], [Shield Wall]

Passive: [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier I: 3,477/5,000)]

EXP: 1,520 / 1,600

* * *

It was a great deal slower than his previous rate of leveling, but he had an automatic sniper rifle and a cheating materialization sphere. This time, he only had a spear and shield.

Still, it was a little hard to get used to such a weak body after being level 90, as previously easily accomplished motions were tiring for him. Well, that and he used his skills more often.

Speaking of, King obtained two new skills. [Domineering Thrust] and [Shield Wall].

[Domineering Thrust] was basically a stronger spear thrust which dealt more damage based on ST spent. If a normal spear thrust dealt say, 50 damage, and King spent 100 ST more on that thrust, it would deal an extra 200 damage, doing a total of 250 damage. An extra 2 damage for every 1 ST spent. It would be great, if there wasn't a limitation. The maximum possible damage output was 10 times the base damage of the weapon used, so if the spear's base damage was 25~75, King would only be able to dish out 250~750 possible damage.

Another effect was that it lowered the HP, MP and ST recovery of the enemy struck by 50% for 5 seconds. Not really important, but if against enemy players or mobs that could use potions or heal, it was basically a godsend. Another even better effect was that it slowed the movement of the enemy by 25% for 10 seconds. The most amazing thing? Those effects could stack. If King struck an enemy four times with [Domineering Thrust] within the span of 10 seconds, he could completely stun the enemy for a period of time! Sadly, the lowered recovery effect couldn't stack. That would be too OP.

[Shield Wall] was simple. King would slam his shield into the ground, taking a defensive stance. For the amount of time King held that stance, King would block damage based on his remaining ST. Say, the shield protected against 100 damage. Even if the attack King blocked dealt 300 damage, King would still receive no damage, however his ST would drop by 100. 200 extra damage-block for 100 ST, the same trade-off for the other skill.

Obviously, there was another limitation. The maximum was 10 times the base protective value of the shield, so if the shield blocked against 100 damage, King would only be able to block at most 1,000 more damage, even if he did have more than 500 ST to spare.

King's current build was definitely more for one-on-one combat, although in a dungeon, leveling this way wasn't too bad. At most, he'd deal against one or two enemies, and in rare cases a pack of five or six. King could always spam his [Domineering Thrust] on enemies, seeing as there was only one type of cool-down in this game. The time it took for your hands to move. Basically, there was no such thing as a cool-down period. As long as King's hands could move, he could use his skills.

Same deal for spells. MP was all that was needed. No stupid cool-down in between spells. As long as one had MP and ST, skills and spells were spammable for all King cared.

With that, although it was much, much slower compared to his previous leveling rate, it was rather fast. It was only 45 minutes, and King was already level 16.

One thing that really, really bothered King?

There. Was. No. Boss.

At the lowest point of the dungeon, even when accessed by a level 80 character, there was a serious lack of boss mobs, and the only one considered strong enough to be a boss was a level 90 mob, the Arch Daemon of King's employer, Saphy.

" _...Saphy's probably just a nickname. No way the daughter of a Demon Lord would have a cutesy name like 'Saphy'."_ King thought.

Ignoring his thoughts when seeing an approaching Troll group, King immediately killed it with with one hit with a maximum strength [Domineering Thrust]. Quickly using [Shield Wall] to block the incoming blows of the other three Trolls, King launched another two [Domineering Thrust] towards two of the Trolls, leaving one lone Troll.

The Troll immediately ran away after seeing how King had killed off three of its fellows with ease. It may have been a monster spawned by the dungeon, but it had intelligence of its own!

"Hmm. Time to try something out, then." King said, looking at the fleeing Troll. He didn't get a chance to try it out yet, as most of the enemies died before they could even respond, or flee beyond the reach of his spear.

Putting down his spear, King prepared himself, and-

-with a gruesome squelching sound, the spear pierced through the solar plexus of the Troll, killing it instantly. Even though King didn't use [Domineering Thrust] whatsoever, it dealt enough damage to literally spear through the Troll and kill it instantly. Trolls had 500 to 750 HP on average, so that was a lot of damage. (Phil Swift agrees)

And immediately after, King received another new skill.

[Weapon Throw] was pretty much self-explanatory, launching a weapon towards an enemy. The more ST spent, the more damage it dealt, the further the distance, the greater the damage. Every ST was 2 extra damage, so same trade-off as his first two skills. It worked on pretty much every melee weapon imaginable. Maximum damage was even higher, at 20 times the base damage of the weapon used. But that was maximum damage. The ST needed to deal that much damage would be, well... A lot. That and after throwing his weapon... well, he wouldn't have a weapon anymore.

"Maybe I should get a backup weapon. A short-sword or something." King said to himself. Seeing as he had a spear and shield, perhaps he could get a gladius or two? His current character was starting to turn into an ancient roman warrior, complete with both spear and shield. Perhaps he could go with the flow and get a gladius for himself, maybe some javelins.

For now, he'd have to make do with his spear and shield. And his overpowered combat knife. Well, overpowered for the first twenty levels. Despite how good it was, he had never touched it, not even once.

...Chances are he never will, but whatever. They'd work as emergency weapons for his newer characters if there was ever a character overrun by a large amount of mobs. To upgrade it, he had to kill hundreds of thousands of mobs. And that was the FIRST upgrade.

Meh. He'll use it when he uses it.

 **[2 hours later...]**

King had went... a bit overboard with the grinding. Lost himself in the EXP gain, he supposed. So much so he didn't even register going to the Adventurer's Guild again to rank up to Bronze, then Silver-Ranked Adventurer.

Now, his stats were:

* * *

Name: King

Level: 32

Title: [Silver-Ranked Adventurer]

HP: 32,000/32,000

MP: 32,000/32,000

ST: 32,000/32,000

STR: 320

VIT: 320

INT: 320

DEX: 320

LCK: 320

Job Class: None

(Skills)

Active: [Domineering Thrust III], [Vital Strikes], [Shield Wall II], [Shield Bash II], [Weapon Throw]

Passive: [Intimidation II], [Apathetic Sentinel], [Sense Surroundings II], [Tracking] [Melee Weapon Mastery (Tier III: 46,477/1,000,000)]

EXP: 310,270 / 320,000

* * *

...To be perfectly honest, he created this character to experience the story and whatnot of the game, but he thought he could at least level a bit instead of playing at level 1. Already, before he had noticed, 3 hours had passed, and he was level 32.

He had also gotten three more skills, [Shield Bash], [Intimidation] and [Apathetic Sentinel]. Well, six, if counting [Vital Strikes], [Sense Surroundings] and [Tracking]. But he already knew what those three did.

[Shield Bash] was just bashing his shield, which decreased the enemy's total ST by half of the total damage dealt, and has a base 20% chance to stun enemies, which increased by ST used to increase the chance of stun. For example, 1% of an enemy's ST must be spent by the player in order to increase the chance by 1%. Thus, if the enemy had 100 ST, King needed to expend 80 ST to increase the base 20% stun chance to 100% stun chance. The higher the ST of the enemy, the more ST King needed to expend in order to increase the stun chance.

[Intimidation] was a skill King didn't know would be useful in the long run or just plain annoying. Maybe there were more useful effects, King didn't know. For now, it was mainly annoying. Every hostile mob that engaged in combat with King had a 10% chance to becoming passive when under the effects of [Intimidation], and when attacked, instead of fighting back, would simply run away. The chance increased by 10% every rank, and the effect had a higher chance of activation when the mob's health was lower.

Why didn't his main character have this skill? He wasn't sure. Perhaps he always killed those mobs faster than they were able to react. Daemons were mindless automatons, similar to robots, so they couldn't feel fear, even though King had slaughtered entire armies _by hand_ in front of their brethren. Other mobs were always killed too quickly to matter.

Last was [Apathetic Sentinel], which was the opposite of King's main character's skill, [Hunter's Grace]. The more King was hit, the less damage he took. And the lesser the distance traversed from his original location, the higher his defense rating. Meaning, if instead of running towards an enemy, King slowly walked towards it, King could gain extra defense.

Did it mean King's defense was absurdly high? Yes. Did it mean he had to chase down enemies that were affected by his [Intimidation] with walking as so not to lose the defense bonus? Also yes. [Weapon Throw] did help, though. It always made sure at least one of the ones that ran were dead.

And did King always leave one or two mobs alive on purpose?

...yes.

Apparently, living mobs that were in groups tend to want to continue staying in groups.

King didn't discover this until some time ago, but when he killed off a group of Greater Orcs, save for two surviving ones, King killed one with a spear throw, and followed the tracks of the second Greater Orc, which gave him the skill [Tracking].

Imagine his surprise when he ended up finding a group of seven whole Greater Orcs.

That gave him a great chunk of EXP, and learning from before, he let one Greater Orc escape, leading him to the next large group.

...The result of over 2 hours of grinding and grinding for more EXP that way was that he was now level 32.

Taking advantage of his rare moment of rational thought, King forced himself to go out of the dungeon, leaving behind the sweet amount of EXP that he could've farmed for, and to take some quests, maybe enjoying the story. His main character had some story happen to it, but sadly, that wasn't his goal at the moment.

Now that it was, King headed to the Adventurer's Guild to turn in some equipment he got for more contribution points, and to perhaps get a quest, maybe get some story.

One other thing he wanted to do was upgrade his spear and shield. Currently, to compensate for the poor stats of his usual spear and shield, King was using the dropped spear and shield from a couple mobs. A drawback dropped weapons had compared to obtained weapons at the start of the game was that dropped weapons would forever remain at that rank, unchanged. The beginning weapons and armor however were all upgradable.

But compared to the relatively simplistic process to upgrading the materialization sphere, King had a feeling upgrading the spear and shield would require the services of an NPC or player blacksmith. Or learning to blacksmith on his own. That he could not do unless he was willing to sink a lot of time to learn a relatively useless skill that he could pay someone else to do.

King's philosophy in a game was simple when it came to production skills:

'Why learn to make the sword when you can just kill a hundred men and take a hundred swords? Why learn to fish when you can pay the fisherman for his whole catch? Why learn to enchant items when you can just pay a mage to inscribe a hundred enchantments? Why learn to cook when you can buy the chef and his whole kitchen? Why learn to make potions when you can buy the services of a master alchemist?'

Unless he was doing some role-playing as a blacksmith, chef, enchanter, fisherman, etc, King didn't need to upgrade any of those skills in his characters. The only reason he'd do role-play as a different character would be for inspiration or ideas in the game he was making in his spare time.

King exited the dungeon to find a blacksmith in the city. The blacksmith branches in the dungeon's first floor were just able to do basic repairs to the tools he had. But no point in repairing the spear there and then and then go to a new blacksmith's place to do something else. May as well do everything at one blacksmith.

Speaking of which, tools and weapons could break, apparently. King found that out when one of the dropped spears snapped in two when going straight against a Greater Orc's shield. It was a level 20 spear, so it was nothing. If anything, it just gave King the opportunity to level up his [Shield Wall] skill while he switched out to a better spear.

After 30 minutes of searching, King found a nearby blacksmith, which was located just a few blocks away from the Adventurer's Guild branch in the city.

"The Silver Anvil... Seems pretty good." King said to himself. The blacksmith's place was just as he'd expect from a role-playing game.

A middle-aged man with a short stubble was hammering away at a piece of heated metal, before taking it up from the shop's NOT silver anvil, throwing it into the water, cooling it down.

"Welcome to The Silver Anvil! Repair, or buying some equipment?" The middle-aged blacksmith asked, looking at King approaching him.

"A little bit of both." King said, taking out the broken level 20 spear. "I'd like to repair this spear, and I'd be looking at some armors, as well. Do you offer weapon upgrades?" King asked.

The middle-aged blacksmith looked at the spear, before giving a price. "5 gold coins. The wood I can replace, but the metals might cost a bit to repair." The blacksmith pointed at a large dent in the spear. "This here'll be hard to re-shape."

"That's alright." King said, passing the blacksmith 5 gold coins.

"Here, pick up your order in three days. It'll be done by then." The blacksmith said, keeping the coins and placing the broken spear to one side. "Right. You also said you were looking for some armor?"

"Yes. Preferably with good protection, but not restraining in movements." King said.

"They all say the same thing. Follow me." The blacksmith motioned for King to follow behind the counter.

"This is my prime selection of armor. I saw that spear you sent in to repair, and it's obviously better than the basic sword and shield. I thought you would be looking for the more... higher-end armor." The blacksmith said, showcasing his large collection of armors.

"Hmm... I'll look through them." King said, trying to find a good set of armor.

 **[15 minutes later...]**

"Sorry, but I don't really like any of them." King said to the blacksmith. All of them had the same problem: Clunky, inconvenient, restraining.

"That's okay. I understand having your preferences for armor." The blacksmith waved. "Oh, you also said you were looking for weapon upgrading?" The blacksmith said. "Forget it. That spear you got was from a dungeon, wasn't it? The design of the spear is hard to repair to its original shape, and you're asking for me to upgrade it? Sorry, but no dice."

"Not that spear. This spear, and also this shield." King said, taking out his original pair of shield and spear.

The blacksmith examined the spear and shield, before raising an eyebrow. "These seem to be perfectly normal. I can definitely upgrade these. Question is, why?"

"Just sentimentality." King lied.

"I see... must belong to your son or something? He planning on joining the Legion?" The man said, further examining the spear and shield. "I can definitely upgrade this. What do you want to upgrade it to?"

"I don't know. Surprise me." King said.

"Heh, alright. This'll cost you 30,000 gold." The blacksmith smirked deviously. It was obvious he was joking. King however, was not.

"Here." King said, passing the blacksmith a large pouch bursting to the brim with coins.

"W-wait, you're serious?" The blacksmith asked once more.

"Yep. Surprise me."

"Right... Right! I'll show you what a real Silver-Grade Blacksmith can do!" The blacksmith said, getting pumped up. "You can collect that broken spear in three days. Your son's spear and shield might take a week or two."

"That's okay." King said.

Afterwards, King left the blacksmith to his own devices, not expecting the blacksmith to be so fired up. Sure, he was handed 30,000 gold, but that was just about half of King's total money.

While waiting, King would simply have to stick to his basic skill of 'using the strongest weapon in my inventory', which just so happened to be a level 30 gladius. He also had a level 25 spear and level 20 shield. It was as if the game was pushing him to become a roman warrior.

"Time to go to the real Adventurer's Guild, then." King said to himself, heading towards the Adventurer's Guild.

The Adventurer's Guild in the starter city was nothing compared to the main branch in Orbis. Rowdy, broken down... there wasn't a lot of things happening between the adventurers, except fighting, drinking, turning in quests... and sex. A lot of sex. Seriously, the 'free accommodations' that were provided had the smell of sexual fluids permeate into the building, seeping into even the darkest of crevices. It was _almost_ unbearable.

Key word being 'almost'. The only thing worse than that was the smell of dead bodies after killing them, before the dungeon absorbs the body. Looks like the combined smell of shit and piss and a dead body was the worst thing he would ever smell, even surpassing skunk spray. King almost passed out while collecting loot.

Compared to that, the overwhelming smell of sex was preferable.

Walking up to the receptionist, King plopped out a bunch of items onto the desk to turn into contribution points. King's to-and-fro with the Adventurer's Guild was enough for them to get used to the fact that he had 'an item bag', also known as the 40-slot inventory he had right now. After all, that wasn't a shocking piece of news now...

"That'll be 22,364,506 contribution points in total." The receptionist said respectfully. In front of her was a Silver-Ranked Adventurer, one of the few that were in their city right now! The most unbelievable part? He had just registered as a Copper-Ranked Adventurer... not even 3 hours ago. 3 hours later, and he was among the ranks of the strongest in the whole city! Even the city's 'War God Reginald' had to be wary of them!

No one in history had ever got to become a Silver-Ranked Adventurer from a lowly Copper-Ranked Adventurer after just 3 HOURS of hunting! No one but this man!

Taking back his Adventurer Badge, King checked that his total points had reached 100,233,400 points in total, just enough to rank up to Gold-Ranked Adventurer. King knew better, though. No need to rank up so fast. He wasn't even level 40 yet. If he failed, he'd end up losing all of his contribution points. And that was bad.

Anyhow, he could always just look for some quest. Not like losing EXP was the end of the world or something... oh wait, it definitely was. Wasting EXP was something King absolutely LOATHED. Still, not like the EXP would run away if he didn't farm now. If anything, it was just a mild annoyance at best, the fact that he couldn't grind more.

Still, now was the time for STORY. Grinding would only be for increasing his level to make missions or quests easier. At least, for this character.

* * *

 **Preview Of Next Chapter:**

King kept his Adventurer Badge in his inventory, and moved to the quest board to look through some quests. So far, he had not even touched a single quest. He had just registered as an adventurer, and then turned in pieces of equipment for contribution points, which were then used for him to rank up. King had just rinsed-and-repeated this process, not touching any other quest.

Even his main character had only finished one quest! ONE! And it was the one about killing 100 monsters in the dungeon!

Browsing the quest boards for any story-related quests was about as likely as a delinquent fishing a winning lottery ticket in a trash can, but that was the best he could do now.

...Oddly specific? Yes, it was.

Well, it wasn't like a perfectly nice story quest would just pop up in the middle of nowhere. Even that Silver-Ranked Party... what was it called, [Purple Spear]? Yeah, that was the one. It ended up being a cliche scenario of 'need win else girl that like go bye bye'.

Suddenly, the doors to the Adventurers Guild flung open, a small boy out of breath in the doorway.

"I want to put up a request! A few {Elite Beasts} has been spotted near our village!"

...

In a certain crazy noisy bizarre town, a delinquent sneezed before realizing that the ticket he picked up was indeed the winning ticket.

"WHAT!? SG GROUP 121314!?"

* * *

 **End Of Preview.**


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